Seven injured in boat fire at Mead

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 | 10:51 a.m.

Seven people remained hospitalized this morning for treatment of burns caused by a flash fire on their boat at Lake Mead on Monday night.

Two of the victims, a 16-year-old boy and a man, were in critical condition with third-degree burns and had to be airlifted to University Medical Center, said Roxanne Dey, the National Park Service spokeswoman at Lake Mead.

Earlier Monday "helicopters were actually grounded in Las Vegas because of the excessive heat," Dey said. "Luckily, the air temperature cooled off enough tonight for Mercy Air to respond and transport the critically burned victims so quickly."

Four other people received second-degree burns and one had first-degree burns. Those five victims were taken by ground ambulance to UMC, Dey said. Most of the burns occurred on their extremities, she said.

The boaters came from Nevada and California and some of them may be related, Dey said.

Witnesses told rangers that the 18-foot boat, named "Hasta La Vista, Baby," was approaching the dock at the Callville Bay Resort and Marina when it exploded about 8:35 p.m. Callville Bay is on the northwestern shore of the lake.

The reported explosion was "a flash vapor fire," Dey said. The boat could carry 20 to 30 gallons of fuel, which may have ignited on its way in from the lake, Dey said. Investigators this morning were continuing to try to determine the exact cause of the fire.

Callville concession employees isolated the burning boat from the other boats in the harbor and at the marina and, using the marina fire boat, extinguished the fire at 9:10 p.m., Dey said.

Marina employees also placed a boom around the vessel as a safety precatuion to contain any fuel that may be leaking from the boat.

National Park Service concession employees at all marinas "are trained to handle this type of incident and tonight that training paid off," Dey said.

Other boaters in the bay helped rescuers. Two Park Service volunteers on another boat assisted the park rangers and firefighters, Park Service ranger and incident commander Ryan Regnell said.

"Thanks to the quick action of the marina employees, no other boats caught fire and no other visitors or employees were injured," he said.

Marina employees and Henderson Fire Department firefighters from Station No. 86 at Lake Las Vegas responded to the boat fire, Dey said. The Henderson firefighters helped rangers provide on-the-scene medical care to the burn victims.