Imagine a Shediac summer without the wharf.
That’s what was at stake when a boat burst into flames at the Pointe-du-Chêne wharf on Sunday and started heading for the other boats in the marina, but thanks to the actions of one man on a personal watercraft, catastrophe was avoided.
Captain Paul Moores, owner of Shediac Bay Cruises, and fellow captain Dennis Richard, saw it all happen.
They were getting their boat ready to head out on a cruise when they noticed the driver of the vessel that would catch fire, who they say had just fuelled up, because he was having engine trouble. Keeping an eye on him, since he was going toward the other boats, the captains started preparing to assist him.
But it was too late.
“At one point, it just blew up. It shocked us,” Richard said in an interview.
They saw the driver jump off the boat, and said he was later taken to the hospital with bad burns. RCMP confirmed one man, the driver of the boat, was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. No one else was injured.
After the explosion, Moores jumped into action, calling 911 and the Coast Guard. He and Richard pulled out a fire hose and started spraying the vessel, but the flames were too intense, and the burning boat was headed toward the yacht club.
Many people on the wharf were working together to try and stop the fire, including three men on a personal watercraft, but it was ultimately one of those men, Richard and Moores say, who saved the entire marina.
Patrick Leblanc dove off his watercraft and swam toward the burning boat. He tied a rope to it so it could be pulled away from the other vessels, stopping a potential spread of the fire.
“He pretty much saved a lot of boats in the marina,” Richard said.
Leblanc declined to be interviewed.
The boat burned for two hours, Moores said, filling the sky with black plumes. Once firefighters and RCMP were on scene, the wharf was evacuated to protect people from potentially toxic smoke.
The wharf was calm Monday morning, the charred remains of the boat floating a good distance away from the other vessels at the wharf, separated by a rock breakwater.
Victor Cormier, general manager of the Pointe-du-Chêne Harbour Authority, said if the burning vessel had crashed into the other boats, 10 to 15 of them could have gone up in flames, and the wharf may have been shut down for the summer.
He met with the fire chief several times throughout the day on Sunday, he said, and confirmed the wharf was closed for a short period because there was potential for the wind to change, which could have pushed the flames back toward the other boats.
In a statement to CBC, the Canadian Coast Guard said the RCMP is investigating the incident. By the time the CCG was contacted, the driver of the vessel was not in danger, so the search and rescue team stood down, a spokesperson said.
The CCG’s marine environment and hazards response team is returning to the scene Monday to assess whether an environmental response is needed.