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Boats on fire at Leicester Marina


frangar

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Is it just my perception or are boat fires becoming much more common than they used to be?

 

Having said that we shared a holiday in a Centre Park chalet with our eldest son a few years ago and i had to show him how to light and control a coal fire, even though he had been on loads of boating holidays on our shareboats, both of which had solid fuel stoves.

 

I was allowed to make and light a coal fore under supervison from the age of about 5 and unsupervised from about 7,  a skill most youngsters wont be taught these days.

 

Is it a lack of awareness of the dangers or just bad luck?

 

 

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44 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Is it just my perception or are boat fires becoming much more common than they used to be?

 

Having said that we shared a holiday in a Centre Park chalet with our eldest son a few years ago and i had to show him how to light and control a coal fire, even though he had been on loads of boating holidays on our shareboats, both of which had solid fuel stoves.

 

I was allowed to make and light a coal fore under supervison from the age of about 5 and unsupervised from about 7,  a skill most youngsters wont be taught these days.

 

Is it a lack of awareness of the dangers or just bad luck?

 

 

Yes - folks are more and more disconnected from devices as time goes by - because 'they don't need to'.

Loof at the posts on here from new 'members' who quite often ask very basic questions, many of which are not particularly boat specific.

 

Thank heavens for everyone on here who is prepared to spend time answering such questions....

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55 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Is it just my perception or are boat fires becoming much more common than they used to be?

 

Having said that we shared a holiday in a Centre Park chalet with our eldest son a few years ago and i had to show him how to light and control a coal fire, even though he had been on loads of boating holidays on our shareboats, both of which had solid fuel stoves.

 

I was allowed to make and light a coal fore under supervison from the age of about 5 and unsupervised from about 7,  a skill most youngsters wont be taught these days.

 

Is it a lack of awareness of the dangers or just bad luck?

 

 

 

I suspect it is the reporting of boat fires that has improved. Pre-internet we just did not hear about them unless local. 

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I suspect it is the reporting of boat fires that has improved. Pre-internet we just did not hear about them unless local. 

 

 

It’s this I think!!

 

However I agree about basic skills...I had a boater a couple of years ago ask me how to make a hole in metal...I literally had to explain the concept of a drill & drill bits....it was his first boat...going to london obviously...but even so...I thought he was joking at first...turns out from chatting to him & gf he wasn’t....

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35 minutes ago, frangar said:

It’s this I think!!

 

However I agree about basic skills...I had a boater a couple of years ago ask me how to make a hole in metal...I literally had to explain the concept of a drill & drill bits....it was his first boat...going to london obviously...but even so...I thought he was joking at first...turns out from chatting to him & gf he wasn’t....

And you only let us in on such gadgets now. Next, you'll be telling us there's a magical tool for making a piece of wood shorter.

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2 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

 

I was allowed to make and light a coal fore under supervison from the age of about 5 and unsupervised from about 7,  a skill most youngsters wont be taught these days.

 

 

 

 

Same here, and set the News of the World alight trying to make it draw

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16 minutes ago, BilgePump said:

And you only let us in on such gadgets now. Next, you'll be telling us there's a magical tool for making a piece of wood shorter.

I didn’t want to confuse them further....

 

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

What - ……………………. they really went to London …………………….. Wow !!!

To be fair I doubt they made it...they had just picked the boat up from braunston marina and were moored outside!!

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The cause of the fire is said to be an electrical fire. Not a stove!

 

'Electrical fault' to blame for marina fire

The cause of the marina fire which destroyed two boats and damaged two more has been recorded as “accidental” by the fire service. They say it was started by an “electrical fault” aboard the first boat, with fire spreading to the second and the remaining vessels suffering heat damage

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/live-boats-fire-marina-send-3843809

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2 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

The cause of the fire is said to be an electrical fire. Not a stove!

 

'Electrical fault' to blame for marina fire

The cause of the marina fire which destroyed two boats and damaged two more has been recorded as “accidental” by the fire service. They say it was started by an “electrical fault” aboard the first boat, with fire spreading to the second and the remaining vessels suffering heat damage

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/live-boats-fire-marina-send-3843809

 

Shouldn't the BSS stop that sort of thing ?

 

Mission Statement :

 

The Boat Safety Scheme, or BSS, is a public safety initiative owned by the Canal & River Trust and the Environment Agency. Its purpose is to help minimise the risk of boat fires, explosions, or pollution harming visitors to the inland waterways, the waterways' workforce and any other users.

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

The internet has been about for several years now

 

1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Indeed, but the use of it continues to increase.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Just like the fires it would seem.:apple:

 

So that's it then, definitive proof that fires drive increased use of the internet! ?

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2 hours ago, frangar said:

It’s this I think!!

 

However I agree about basic skills...I had a boater a couple of years ago ask me how to make a hole in metal...I literally had to explain the concept of a drill & drill bits....it was his first boat...going to london obviously...but even so...I thought he was joking at first...turns out from chatting to him & gf he wasn’t....

I remember having to explain what a garden fork was and how it should be used, like you I thought they were joking at first

3 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I suspect it is the reporting of boat fires that has improved. Pre-internet we just did not hear about them unless local. 

 

 

I suspect it's this

45 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

There are more boats being lived on so more stoves lit in winter.  Also, more and more boats being lived on which are arguably unsuitable for habitation.  Fires aren't surprising.

And a bit of this

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Some years ago,I was told of an elderly couple who bought a boat above the first lock on the Hatherton Branch. A few days after they had taken over the boat,another boater engaged them in conversation and asked when they were going to take the boat out. They said they were waiting for the Lock Keeper to work them through. Not sure if I believe the story,but from reading this post,it sounds credible.

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1 hour ago, nebulae said:

Some years ago,I was told of an elderly couple who bought a boat above the first lock on the Hatherton Branch. A few days after they had taken over the boat,another boater engaged them in conversation and asked when they were going to take the boat out. They said they were waiting for the Lock Keeper to work them through. Not sure if I believe the story,but from reading this post,it sounds credible.

I was moored at Heyford as a day boat passed. 15 mins later I followed it to it's first lock, where it was in the lock with the gates closed but little seemed to be happening.

 

Walked up to find 4 people standing about with windlasses and 5 more on board, the top paddles were still untouched. They told me that they knew what to do but were waiting for the lock to fill and asked if all locks were this slow?

 

Obviously I gently explained things and they were on their way. Thing is they were not idiots and had been briefed only in the previous hour - it just hadn't "gone in".

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Not boat related but in a similar vein - I used to teach basic skills maths and English to adult males over 21. I was explaining that 2000 cc on the back of your car means that you have a 2 litre engine to reinforce the relationship between cubic centimetres and litres when one of the men said "Well, it says 2000cc on the back of my car but when I fill it up it takes a lot more than that." I thought he was joking at first but he was absolutely serious. I had to change my lesson plan and explain the 4 stroke cycle instead. And yes, I did write 'suck, squeeze, bang, blow' on the whiteboard in the prison classroom!

Edited by Beo
Fat fingers
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