On 04/09/2023 at approximately 1316 hours, I, Texas Game Warden, received a call from the brother of O1, owner of the Bullet bass boat identified and vessel registration. His brother stated that O1, was on his boat on Lake Livingston possibly near Kickapoo Creek, and his boat was on fire. I then notified the Onalaska VFD who already had knowledge of the incident and were responding to the scene with their fire vessel. While in route to the scene I was notified by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office that the vessel fire had been extinguished by the vessel’s owner, no one was injured, and the vessel was being towed back to Kickapoo boat ramp by another vessel that was in the area.
When O1 arrived back to the boat ramp in his vessel that was being towed, I inspected the vessel and questioned O1 regarding the incident. O1 stated that he, his wife, and his son,, were drifting over a flat near the shore fishing when they saw smoke coming from the three rear compartments of their bass boat. While drifting, He was not using the outboard motor or his trolling motor. A small fire was observed by O1 in the rear Port storage compartment that contained a Lithium Powerpack brand 36 Volt battery and an oil reservoir. O1 was able to extinguish the fire using his two fire extinguishers and some water from the lake. O1 was also able to cut and disconnect the wires from his batteries to prevent further fire risk. Damage to the Lithium Powerpack battery indicated that the negative terminal was melted and charred. Other damage to the vessel included melting and charring of wires and a fuel inlet hose located in the rear port storage compartment of the vessel. No other damage to the vessel was observed.
The vessel contained an adequate number of PFD’s on board. Neither of the occupants were wearing PFD’s at the time of the incident.
0451 LIVINGSTON
Onalaska                      