Smithville Fire 6/9

[es1758]

Put in on W and went south caught a few nice fish but nothing to brag about. Headed in about 11:00 dropped my buddy at the dock to get the truck when I trolled out to wait I see a Boat at the edge of the buoys with smoke coming from the motor. It was way more smoke than a richly mixed 2 stroke so I start to head that way and I seen the guy get up and start putting on his life vest to bail. At that point I new things were going south quickly so I speed over to help. I was already unbuckling my fire extinguisher when I got to him and could smell it was an electrical fire so I told him to unhook the battery, he had no idea where it was and when I told him where I thought it would be he didn't want to touch it because he was wet. At this point my adrenaline is going and we gotta get this fire out before the fuel catches so I told him to hold my boat and came aboard to unhook the battery. Got it unhooked and the cowl off and proceeded to put out the fire with my extinguisher because he didn't have one.

I'm sure most of you guys know everything about your boats so you can react in an emergency but for the guys that don't please take some time to figure out how things work so you can react in case something does happen. Know where your fire extinguisher and life vest are and test them on a regular basis, know how to take off the cowl and where the battery and fuel disconnect is. Past experience has taught me that if you do see smoke coming from under the cowl DO NOT STAND OVER IT WHEN YOU TAKE IT OFF most likely it is smoldering underneath and when you remove the cowl it will allow air/oxygen to come in and a flash fire will flare up.

When I got to him he was just gonna jump off and watch it burn just because he had no knowledge of his boat and no safety equipment. So if you get anything at all outta this story please take a minute to check and test all your safety equipment, it may save your life or someone else.

[Phil in MO]

Good job man!

[jackb]

What a great thing to do!! Congrats to you for coming to someones aid and staving off a potential disastrous situation.

[Jigging15]

Wow. Glad you were in the right spot at the right time to help him out. That is above and beyond what most would do for sure. So way to go. The crappie gods will smile on you now for sure.

[KCMO CRAPPIESLAYER]

Good job on helping a fellow fishermen out! Glad everything turned out alright and no one was hurt

[keeferfish]

What a great thing to do!! Congrats to you for coming to someones aid and staving off a potential disastrous situation.

X2

Jack almost seemed civilized with this comment.

[billd2626]

Man, what a scary situation. Great job to help out and I'm glad everything turned out OK.

[sevenfiftynine]

That was quick, level-headed thinking on your part....good job in rendering assistance. I still say having a boat operators license is not that bad of a thing....as long as they include a statute called, "Boating While Being an Idiot", or "BWBI" for short!!!!

[BJ67]

What a story....Glad you were able to rescue the guy and no one was hurt ..... and sevenfiftynine...... BWBI sounds good. Saw a guy that needed one of those citations last time I was out.

[G.Gordon]

Good on ya, Man!! Cheers!!