April 2009 fire at New Englang Boatworks

[ChuckA]

There was a serious fire at New England Boatworks this morning.
Update: Portsmouth boatworks fire out; hot spots remain - Projo 7 to 7 News Blog | Rhode Island news | The Providence Journal

8 firefighters were treated for cyanide exposure.
As many as 100 jobs are disrupted.

[JohnRPollard]

Chuck,

I'm trying to remember what they were building there?

[blt2ski]

John,

Just one of a few BIG name boats they built! High end custom boats.

marty

[sailingdog]

The cynical part of me is wondering if any of the owners of boats there were behind on their boat payments...

[boofus]

Lots of stories about Fire at boat yards lately.......

[billyruffn]

Billy Ruff'n in on the hard in that yard, and this is the first I've heard of the fire. It appears from the photos that the fire was in the NEB shops -- there are several shops in these quanset huts -- woodworking, mechanical, metal working as well as the engineering offices and materials inventories. They do a lot of building with high tech materials so there are probably lots of nasty chemicals stored about the yard.

I guess I'll have to give them a call tomorrow to see if we still have a sailboat.

[sailingdog]

I hope BillyRuffin is okay... good luck BR.

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by billyruffn

Billy Ruff'n in on the hard in that yard, and this is the first I've heard of the fire. It appears from the photos that the fire was in the NEB shops -- there are several shops in these quanset huts -- woodworking, mechanical, metal working as well as the engineering offices and materials inventories. They do a lot of building with high tech materials so there are probably lots of nasty chemicals stored about the yard.

I guess I'll have to give them a call tomorrow to see if we still have a sailboat.

Good luck BillyR. Hope all is well witht he boat.

Thanks for the info, Marty. Not exactly your run-of-the-mill boats they're building!

[JT1019]

No boats on the hard or in the water were damaged by the fire with the exception of boats within the affected buildings. 3 buildings were a total loss. Place looks like a bomb went off.

[sailingdog]

Considering what some of the chemicals they probably had stored in fairly decent quantity, I'm not surprised. MEKP is a pretty potent chemical, and just one of many they probably had on hand.

Originally Posted by JT1019

No boats on the hard or in the water were damaged by the fire with the exception of boats within the affected buildings. 3 buildings were a total loss. Place looks like a bomb went off.