A man lost all his possessions along with his boat to a fire that broke out Friday afternoon in Cornet Bay.
Smoke from the burning, wood-hulled, 50-foot 1951 Chris Craft could been seen from downtown Oak Harbor and miles around in all directions. The boat was anchored about 100 yards from shore. Although Fire District 2 volunteers responded, the effort to control the blaze was largely in the hands of the 44-foot rescue boat owned by Marine Services, which is based in Cornet Bay.
The Marine Services crew of John Aydelotte, Jr. and Jeff James continually circled the burning boat and poured water on it, but it ended up a total loss.
“It was a classic,” said John Aydelotte, Sr., who estimate the loss at $100,000, including the boat’s contents.
The boat’s owner, Jared Passenger, was not aboard when the fire broke out. There was a cat on board. When the fire was first reported, the boat was engulfed in flames. The cat jumped overboard and started swimming.
Aydelotte said the cat swam in circles for a while, then his son rescued it with a large fishing net. “It was pretty traumatized,” he said. “He’s only got 6 or 7 lives left.” After drying out near a stove, the cat appeared to be fully recovered.
When the fire was extinguished, the boat was pulled to shore. A containment boom was place around it as a precaution against a fuel spill.
Russ Lindner, Chief of Investigations for the Island County Sheriff’s Office, described the boat as “gutted, it’s gone,” adding at Passenger lost everything. “All his worldly possessions were on that boat,” he said.
Lindner has just begun his investigation on Monday, but he suspected the fire was caused by a cooking and heating stove that Passenger had recently installed on the vessel.
Passenger has spent the summer living on the boat, anchoring it in various spots in Cornet Bay and at the nearby state park, according to Aydelotte. Lindner said neither the boat nor its contents were insured.
The Red Cross was contacted to provide assistance to Passenger, and a fund in his name has been established at Whidbey Island Bank. He is employed by Tesoro Oil Refinery in Anacortes. Efforts to contact him were unsuccessful.
