RedactedNarrative: On 8/22/2021 while patrolling Percy Priest Lake I was dispatched to a boat fire, with injuries, at the Stewart''s Creek boat ramp in Rutherford County.  Upon arriving on scene,  there was a vessel engulfed in flames, and an occupant of the vessel being treated by EMS for burn injuries.
  
  I arrived on scene at approximately 2:10pm and began assessing the situation.  A local fire fighter waved me over so he could get in my boat.  He advised that we needed to push the vessel closer to the bank for the fire fighters to be able to extinguish the flames easier.  I was able to maneuver my boat in a manner that he could safely push the vessel to the shoreline with a boat hook.  The fire on the boat was then extinguished safely.
  
  Upon interviewing the operator, Operator, he stated that he had just bought the boat a week and a half prior and that this was his first outing with it.  Prior to arriving at the boat ramp he topped off the fuel tank with approximately 9 gallons of gasoline.  His son then backed him down the Stewarts Creek boat ramp and into the water.  
  
  Operator said that he activated the ventilation blowers on the vessel for a couple of minutes prior to starting the engine.  Then engine started fine and he idled him and his younger son, out into the No-Wake Zone to wait for his older son to come down to the dock to board the vessel.  While drifting and shifting the vessel from reverse to neutral to forward, to stay in position, the explosion of the engine compartment occurred.  
  
  Operator grabbed his fire extinguisher to attempt to put out the flames but the fire was too intense for the fire extinguisher to have any effect.  Him and son then jumped from the boat and swam to the shoreline.
  
  Operator sustained a laceration above his left eye-brow, and burns to the back of both legs and the back of his left arm.  After speaking with paramedics, his spouse drove him to the ER to be thoroughly evaluated.  son was uninjured.
  
  Additional pictures of the scene and injury pictures are included in the case file if needed.