A huge three-alarm blaze destroyed several expensive boats and a building at a Seattle marina overnight, forcing dozens of people to evacuate and leave everything they have in the path of the inferno. Crews responded to the Westlake Marina on South Lake Union just after 1 a.m. Monday after receiving reports of a rapidly-spreading fire.
By the time firefighters arrived, four boats were already fully ablaze and the flames had spread to a building on the waterfront.
Marine patrol was also called in to help battle the fire. Meanwhile, dozens of people fled neighboring boats in panic.
Altogether, four boats sank and six more were damaged, but no one was injured.
Many of the boats moored in the area are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and many are homes. There are also million-dollar houseboats just a dock away - including the home from the hit movie "Sleepless In Seattle." It was not damaged or in danger.
One man who lives at the next dock over says he heard a woman screaming, then saw the fire and felt the intense heat.
"It moved from one boat to the next boat," he said. "I would say within the time it took to get started on three boats, the building was starting to burn above it - and then it spread pretty rapidly though the building."
Crews eventually got the flames under control.