On Monday, August 20, 2012 at approximately 2125 hours, I was contacted at home by Ranger and informed of a vessel fire on East Canyon Reservoir.  I responded and informed Weber Unified Dispatch that I was responding to the call and requested EMS to respond.  I arrived at the East Canyon State Park boat ramp and prepared the park patrol boat to respond.  The battery was dead in the boat and I requested Officer to bring a jump pack to the boat from the park shop.  At this point, I had been informed from dispatch that there were four passengers from the boat but did not know where they were.  Officer and I were able to get the patrol boat started and headed out to the vessel on fire which was approximately three quarters of a mile due south from the boat ramp.  The flames and smoke were plainly visible.  Morgan County Fire Department arrived on scene with three trucks.  Dispatch informed me that the reporting party was still near the vessel on fire in their own boat and they stated that they had all four passengers from the stricken vessel on board.  Officer and I found the reporting party's boat near the stricken vessel and accounted for the four passengers from the burning boat.  We did an initial medical assessment and found no injuries.  I canceled the ambulance's response as there were no injuries reported and we had three EMT's on the shore with the fire department.  As the reporting party's vessel was over capacity we transferred the four passengers from their boat to the patrol boat.  Both the patrol boat and the reporting party's boat returned to the boat docks at the launch ramp.  I began interviewing the passengers from the burning boat as well as the reporting party.  Officer and several fire fighters went back out on the patrol boat with fire fighting gear and were able to extinguish the flames on the vessel.
  
I obtained a witness statement from the reporting party and a statement from the operator of the burning vessel.  OPERATOR stated that informed me in his verbal statement that they had been drifting and then attempted to start the boat.  It sputtered and died and he believed that the engine flooded.  He tried to start the vessel again, without using the engine compartment blower to vent fumes from the engine compartment.  When he tried to start the vessel, there was a backfire and they saw smoke rising from the engine compartment.  OPERATOR opened the lid to the engine compartment and saw flames.  He and the rest of the passengers abandoned the boat and swam away from it.  He stated that within 5 to 10 minutes they were picked up by another boat.  All four of them were wearing life jackets while in the water.  
The witness stated that a child on board his boat noticed smoke coming from OPERATOR's vessel and alerted him.  He drove over to the area and found OPERATOR and the other passengers in the water and saw flames on the vessel.  Good samaritan and his group assisted OPERATOR and his group on board.  They remained in the area until Officer and I arrived on scene.  
It appears that improper procedure by OPERATOR in not using the engine compartment blower was the cause of this accident.  With a flooded engine and the presence of gasoline vapor in the engine compartment an attempt to start the engine caused the fire.  
On Wednesday, August 22, 2012 the insurance company intermediary of OPERATOR took possession of the vessel and removed it from the park.

Morgan                        