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Pelham Firefighters Battle Boat Fire at New York Athletic Club

This story was updated at 6 p.m.

PELHAM MANOR, N.Y. – Firefighters from New Rochelle and Pelham Manor reported to the New York Athletic Club to extinguish a boat fire around 12:17 p.m. Thursday after receiving numerous 911 calls.

When the firefighters arrived there was black smoke in the sky "that you could see for probably miles around,” said New Rochelle Fire Chief Louis DiMeglio. “The whole top of the boat was burning.” 

The firefighters had the fire on the 61-foot Hatteras motor yacht under control around 2 p.m. by extinguishing it with a mixture of soap and water from another boat, DiMeglio said. 

Firefighters were still there “chasing around small pockets of fire at 5 p.m.,” the chief said. He added it would be out by Thursday night, but that it was “a very difficult operation.” 

“We can’t get on the boat to get at the seed of the fire,” he said. “It’s up on blocks and it’s just too dangerous to put people on there. It’s filled with water and it’s in danger of toppling over.”

The cause of the fire is unknown, DiMeglio said. The owner of the boat was getting it ready for the season, taking the cover off, and DiMeglio said he is unsure of what happened after that because the owner, who suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation, was taken to Jacobi Hospital.  

DiMeglio believes that he “tried to put the fire out himself and that’s a normal thing for some people to do.” They hope to find out the cause of the blaze when the fire investigator sits down to talk with the boat’s  owner, DiMeglio said. The chief said, “About four or five boats around it sustained some collateral damage from the heat,” but they are repairable. He does not feel the same way for the motor yacht, saying “this boat is just gone, I think.”

He urged boat owners to constantly check their electrical equipment to “make sure it’s sound before they start using things.”

“Boats sit over the winter and they’re out in the elements. They should be checked out, especially older boats. This boat was in the 1960s sometime, I think,” said DiMeglio. “This one’s been around a while, but from what I understand, this guy kept it meticulously. I can’t really say it was anyone’s fault. These things – they’re a machine and they just have to be watched over.”

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