Training helped mitigate Taylorsville Lake Marina fire

TAYLORSVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A fire destroyed four boats at Taylorsville Lake Marina over the weekend.

The U.S. Fire Administration said marina fires spread quickly and are dangerous to fight.

“We started seeing the marina fires in the region and across the country, and even though we hadn’t had that type of emergency in years past, it was something we wanted to be prepared for,” Taylorsville Spencer County Fire Protection District Chief Nathan Nation said.

That 2020 training paid off Saturday night in Spencer County after a smoker fell asleep in their houseboat with a lit cigarette, setting off a fire that burned four boats.

“How much hose it would take to reach certain points of the marina, what would our strategies be, how are we going to deploy the fire boat,” Nation said.

The fire boat pumped water onto the fire while firefighters connected four 200-foot sections of hose, knowing they needed to get to the fire 750 feet away. The training and plan meant they didn’t have to think about how they would respond. They just did.

“All those things gave us different options in this scenario and from talking to the firefighters afterwards of this run, all that training really come into play, and helped this incident go smoothly,” Nation said.

The fire chief said the houseboat is owned by the marina and was housing a worker. The sheriff’s office said any criminal investigation will be handled by state conservation officers.

The marina is closed for the season. A phone message was not returned.

The damaged boats have already been removed from the marina.

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