A week-end of boat explosions

A TOTAL of four boat explosions occurred over last weekend, three of them caused by faulty gas installations.

One boat that exploded, caught fire and then sank, moored at Sankey Marine on the Avon at Evesham, leaving the two boaters involved needing hospital treatment.

The report was that two gas bottles that were stored in the boat's engine compartment overheated and exploded, blowing off the engine cover.

Managing to escape the resulting fire, the couple alerted the fire service telling that there were more cylinders stored on the boat, which prevented officers gaining entry as they could explode at any time. The fire people tackled the blaze from the bank. A short while later these cylinders also exploded, with the boat well on fire.

A final cylinder was hosed to prevent it also exploding, but by then the boat was partially sunk.

Thames boat fire

Another boat caught fire on the Thames between Marsh Lock and Shiplake Lock, once again believed to have been caused by escaping gas.

There was no one in the boat at the time, and it is thought that a pilot light had been left on, that caused the ignition of leaking gas, and the boat to catch fire.

As the boat was some short distance from the shore, the fire people doused it from the river bank, then towed its remains to the shore when the flames were eventually put out.

Basingstoke explosion

We have just received an unconfirmed report of a narrowboat exploding at Woking on the Basingstoke Canal, with once again gas cylinders the culprit.

One person was asleep in the boat at the time, but was able to escape uninjured, but by the time the fire service had been alerted the boat was well alight, and virtually destroyed.

Battery explodes

Concluding the weekend of boat explosions, the fourth one was in Beeston Marina at Nottingham, but this time it was a battery that had exploded, when the boater had inadvertently shorted-out two terminals causing it to explode in his face.

The boater, Steve Scott, needed urgent medical and was taken to hospital for treatment.