Superyachts Blaze in Fort Lauderdale

Fire ripped through two luxury yachts on Saturday night, moored at Universal Marine Center in Fort Lauderdale.  More than 60 firefighters were dispatched to the fire at approximately 4.43am following the 911 call.  With flames and smoke visible for miles, firefighters boarded boats parked on the canal to try and tackle the flames.

Both yachts were in the yard for interior work, painting and were fully wrapped at the time. Painting was nearly completed and both yachts were scheduled to leave the yards within 3 weeks. Luckily the crew had already left the yachts earlier the night before, so there was no one on board 161-foot Trinity Lohengrin and the 107-foot Christiansen Reflection.  The former estimated to be worth approximately $12 million and the latter approximately half that.

Although it’s not yet clear exactly what happened and it will obviously take time to ascertain what went wrong, according to local reports, it seems the fire started on Lohengrin and with Reflection nearby, heavy winds from the northwest, blew the flames and smoke on to this neighbouring vessel soon rendering it firmly alight too.  Because the flames took hold in the middle of the night the fire was able to take quite a hold before anyone spotted it and called 911.

With the fire still smouldering days later, the task is now to ascertain what happened, but with reported costs looking like approximately $20 milion, it looks set to be the biggest financial fire loss in the city for a long time.

Mindful of any contaminants like diesel, running into the canal, local authorities together with the Environmental Protection Agency are putting the necessary measures in place.