Our first night on our Chesapeake excursion was a blast...literally! We arrived in the early evening and made our way to Bluewater Yachting Centre marina where Guardian spent the winter. We provisioned the boat and turned in early when at 3:31 a.m. we were awaken to an explosion. There is a panic that shoots through your body like a lightening bolt when you are awakened by fire.
We jumped out of bed and jetted up the stairs to the salon where red and orange flames encompassed the view from all windows. We could see the fire was a dock over from us, but when we opened the door the heat rushed in. We were scary close!
I immediately tried to call 911 from my cell, but not being local, it did not go through. I called the local fire department and received a recording. There was nobody around and no help to call. I looked up the local TV station and called the "news now" number. A reporter answered and I gave her the information to call 911.
After making the call, the news reporter called me back to get more details. I explained the marina office was closed, the slips were filled with boats, but we were the only ones that were staying on their boat. Within minutes the local fire department had arrived, as had the news reporter.
Thirty-five firefighters from nine Hampton Fire units responded and hazmat crews arrived in boats to try to contain the fuel that spilled into the water. It took about an hour to extinguish the fire, which I guess in marina terms, is relatively small in comparison to catastrophic fires that have taken place.
This is a short video clip I took of the fire. You can hear the boat crackling and oozing.
Luckily, nobody was hurt in the fire and there wasn't a boat next to it. My video and pictures were used by two or three news stations. This is a clip of one of the interviews. You can tell I was still quite "excited" by the experience as I couldn't gather my thoughts! It was big local news and I found myself in quite a few articles and videos with no make-up and hardly dressed for public airing! After watching a few clips, I asked Tad, "Babes, is my nose really that big?!" He is a smart man, and chose not to answer!
The whole experience made me astutely aware of God's protection. I wonder how many times we are covered by his hand and we haven't even a clue of the danger avoided.