RedactedNarrative: On Saturday, August 13, 2022, at approximately 20:10 hrs, game warden received a call from a deputy with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office. The deputy reported a boat on fire at Cedar Valley Reservoir near Garnett Kansas. The deputy reported that everyone was off the vessel and made it to shore but that two victims had been taken to the Garnett hospital with burns. 
  
  Deputy then called LT to see if there were other wardens to assist. LT   asked Deputy to go to the hospital to try and contact the victims while warden would respond to the lake, with LT   responding later. Deputy went to the Garnett hospital and first met with Subject1. 
  
  Subject1 was the wife/mother of the two victims and was present at the time of the accident. Subject1 said that they were taking the boat out for the first time and had just gassed the boat up before going to the lake. Subject1 said they had backed the boat on the trailer down the ramp and were preparing to unload it into the water. Subject1 said the two victims Husband and Son were already on the boat. 
  
  Subject1 was the one who was in charge of disconnecting the winch hook from the front of the boat to free it from the trailer. Subject1 was at the front of the boat while Husband tried to start the boat. Subject1 said Husband tried to start the boat a couple times without success but kept trying. Subject1 said suddenly the boat was engulfed in flames. 
  
  Subject1 said that Son jumped off the boat into the water and that he was wearing a life jacket. Subject1 said that Husband then also jumped into the water and hit the dock. Subject1 then said she disconnected the winch hook and pushed the boat off the trailer into the water as she was worried the flames would burn the truck. 
  
  Subject1 said that the boat floated out towards the middle of the lake, the visible flames had dwindled but there was a lot of white smoke. Subject1 then said that soon the flames returned and the entire boat was in flames. 
  
  Subject1 then called 911. Deputy asked Subject1 to fill out a voluntary statement form with what happened and she did so. Deputy then went to talk with Husband. Husband was on pain medication and both his arms and legs were wrapped in bandages. Husband also showed some burns on his face and his nose was very red. 
  
  Husband told Deputy what happened and his story was the same as Subject1 except that he claimed the boat was already disconnected from the trailer when it caught fire. Husband also added that he thought the fire started because he had forgot to turn on the exhaust blower. 
  
  Husband said he could smell gas vapors while trying to start the boat. Husband also said that the reason he delayed to jump in the water is that he was looking for Son as he did not know he had already jumped in. Husband said that when he jumped in he struck his face on the boat dock injuring his nose. 
  
  Deputy photographed the injuries to Husband though they were already bandaged. Deputy then went to talk to Son. Son had both legs bandaged but overall appeared less burnt than Husband. Son gave his account of what happened which matched his parent's accounts. Deputy then had to leave the hospital as both victims were getting transported by ambulance to KU med burn unit in Kansas City kansas. 
  
  Deputy then responded to the lake and met an Anderson County fireman who was still on the scene. The fireman said that the boat caught fire at about 18:45 hrs. He said that they used their boat to try to put the fire out with fire extinguishers without much success and that the boat burned to the water line before partially sinking. 
  
  Officer then arrived and the wardens launched their boat. The wardens motored over to the burned boat, it was mostly sunk with just the front end sticking above the water. Deputy was able to find a metal eyelet on the burned boat and attached a rope. The warden then tried to tow the burned boat back to shore but it was too heavy and just ended up sinking. The wardens then tied a buoy to the rope and left it for the night. The next morning Deputy and   returned to the lake. The buoy was no longer attached to the rope and so they used sonar to locate what they believed was the boat sitting on the bottom and marked it with a marker buoy. 
  
  Deputy later talked to a family member who said that both Husband and Son had 1st and 2nd degree burns, and that Husband had a broken nose.  The sunk boat was raised from the bottom of the lake on 08/18/22 by divers, the boat was loaded onto its trailer and then taken to Hillsdale State Park for storage. On 08/31/22 Deputy took closeup photos of the burned engine and then sent them to boating officer who looked over the photos and then also showed them to a boat mechanic at Arnies Boat Sales and Service in Lawrence Kansas. They concluded all the relevent parts appeared to be marine grade and in place but were not able to see the backfire flame arrestor. On 09/07/22 boating officer physically inspected the boat and did find what was most likely the melted remains of the backfire flame arrestor, and so the cause of the fire/explosion was not able to be determined. Nothing further to report at this time.
  