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Lisa K was a 2001 62' Island Boat Works Sportfish, (Frisco, NC), and has been listed for sale for a while... Kinda' strange for a custom NC diesel, valued at around $1.5M to blow up on start up.

Capt Pat,
The story I heard is that they had just put a bunch of boat T-shirts down in the engine room the night before. At 11:30 AM the captain went aboard, found it very warm in the salon, opened the hatch and the shirts were smoldering as soon as enough air was introduced they really ignited and fire was out of control in less than a minute. I wonder why the fixed fire system didn't control it. Pictures in todays Treasure Coast News showed the fire investigators and the burnt T-shirts. Another good reason to check fire systems and make sure the smoke dectors were working.
No mention of engine start up from what I heard.

One of the video clips had a guy saying he heard engines start and then the first explosion. Could have been another boat starting up just about the same time...

splain it to me? t shirts?

OUCH......thats gonna leave a scar

hb

Cotton is combustible, and starts to decompose when its surface temperature reaches approximately 200 degrees. In the process, it starts to generate its own heat. This decaying process is accelerated when the fabric is tightly folded and placed in a confined area. Because it is hot, and may be moist, and has no possible way to dissipate its heat, the oxidation continues to build upon itself, until the garment reaches the critical surface temperature and bursts into flames.

If there was a generator running down there, or an A/C or something, I imagine that some part of it could have reached that temperature.

Guys,
Check out the pictures from the newspaper..www.tcpalm.com/stuart boat fire day after Picture # 11 of 17 shows the T shirts

I'd test the t shirts for linseed oil.

Can't tell you how many er's I was in in 30 years that had cotton towels and rags stored there and nothing.

Saw many a cardboard box of that stuff on top of AC coils and laying against gen sets and in some cases laying against exhaust manifolds.

Don't know if he put a couple of thousand t shirts down there but a pile say of even 20 smouldering wouldn't produce enough heat to make the salon unseasonably warm even with the ac off.

We're talking about a 62 footer with large engines and large engine room with good air vents for the engines.

If I were the fire marshall, I'd look into this one real close.

Linseed oil is a good guess.......but unless it's a huge amount, wouldn't point toward arson. If the garments were imported they could have had oil on them from the printing machinery, and in some parts of the world....oil is oil....

randall wrote:splain it to me? t shirts?

A T-shirt (T shirt or tee) is a thin, knitted shirt which is pulled on over the head to cover most of a person's torso.


Sorry...;)

lightning? Man made or God's?

sim wrote:
A T-shirt (T shirt or tee) is a thin, knitted shirt which is pulled on over the head to cover most of a person's torso.


Sorry...;)

no prob...saw it coming the minute i posted it. still not buying it however. i have a "rag bag" in the shop and in 30 years i dont think it ever got warm. and they arent stacked....they're jammed in there. anythings possible, but i build 2 fires every morning...combustion isnt as easy as you think.

It is caused by a over insured insurance policy rubbing up against an overdue mortgage!! The T shirts just happened to be next to them!! The fact that it was for sale in a crappy economy should be a clue!

i would assume the insurance investigator knows all that too.

So what your saying Rawleigh it was a friction fire.............

Now I know how to start a fire in the wilderness, take two loan papers and rub them together.

Thanks for the tip.

Works every time!!

Guy's,
Heard today that the capt takes care of both vessels that burned and is also a firefighter. We had some lightening strikes and a power outage the morning of the fire, possible causes? Boxes of T shirts near heat source plausible source of ignition.

T-shirts in the engine room? Why, BS!

What am I missing here? I never in all my years of working on and owning boats have I ever heard of T-shirts in the engine room.
It must be a Southern thing, like we eat hoagies up here in NJ.

I never in all my years of working on and owning boats have I ever heard of T-shirts in the engine room.

the only t shirts in my engine room came from thudd, they were great for soaking up the oil.lol

Charlie: I thought they were already oil soaked from his oil slinging dump truck engines in the Tubb!!

Rawlegh
well they were black, and they were probably made of some super aborbment material, i just tie a bunch together and throw it in the bilge.lol

I still wear my Huns old Hatt polo.

When asked about it, I tell people that it was an ex CIA contracted vessel used by Ollie North to run guns and is retired with the owner somewhere in South America.

Bruce wrote:I still wear my Huns old Hatt polo.

When asked about it, I tell people that it was an ex CIA contracted vessel used by Ollie North to run guns and is retired with the owner somewhere in South America.

thats way better than my story.

bruce
i think huns old hatt has turned into a vegtable garden

ed c. wrote:What am I missing here? I never in all my years of working on and owning boats have I ever heard of T-shirts in the engine room.
It must be a Southern thing, like we eat hoagies up here in NJ.

Ed

Depends on what part of NJ you are from. LBI North they are Hero's or Subs. Hoagies is a Philly thing.