RedactedNarrative: On Thursday 6/14/2018 at 2100 hrs. I Ofc. received a call from dispatch in regards to a boat fire on the Elk River north of Welch point. I met up with Fire boat 9 at hacks point marina to get aboard their vessel to make my way to the boat fire. The reason I was on board a fire boat is the closest NRP boat was 40 minutes away and i could get there quicker if I climbed aboard the fire boat. At 2120 hrs. I arrived on scene with the fire boat. from talking to fire board I learned that the occupants of the vessel were safe and on the shore line. EMS was trying to make contact with occupants of the vessel to make sure they did not need medical attention
  Fire boats were attempting to put out the boat fire. EMS went to residence to make contact with occupants of vessel and no one was at the residence. Once I was given an address I had the fire boat take me back to my vehicle so i could drive up to the address to attempt to make contact with the occupants.
  His father advised us that his son and his friend were out on the vessel and his son had called him and told him that the boat had caught fire. I had the father call the son so I could meet up with him and his friend so I could find out what happened to cause the fire and to make sure that both subjects were ok and did not need medical attention.
  I met with the boat owner and the other occupant of the vessel at the Maryland State Police barracks in North East Maryland. I interviewed the two subjects to ask them what happened to the vessel and how it caught on fire. both subjects gave the same story. They departed from the dock at 1830hrs. They went out to the opposite side of the river and anchored the vessel 150-200 yards off shore. They had lit a citronella candle in the cabin of the vessel because there were bugs in the cabin. both occupants were on the back part of the vessel listening to music when Operator smelled smoke at around 2045 hrs. Operator then opened the door to the cabin of the vessel and saw that the candle had fallen on the floor and caught the carpet on fire. Operator the attempted to get the fire extinguisher. The fire was located between him and the fire extinguisher and the heat from the fire was to hot so he was unable to get to the fire extinguisher. Operator then came back out of the cabin of the vessel and grabbed his cell phone and two life jackets and told occupant that they needed to get off of the boat because the vessel was on fire.
  They both put a life jacket on and jumped off of the vessel and started to swim to shore when a passerby picked them up and took them to shore. Subjects said that they were in the water for approx. 15-20 minutes. When they got on board the passerby vessel they called 911 and reported that their vessel was on fire. Once they were on shore subjects went back to residence and got changed into dry clothing. Operator then took occupant back to his house.  All Events occurred in Cecil county
  