Some of the boats already sank in Scottsboro
An early morning marina fire has residents grateful for local fire and rescue's quick response.
The call for a fire at Goose Pond Marina came in around 6:15 Tuesday morning. There are no reported injuries, but five boats were destroyed in the fire, and others were damaged.
Brent Bodoh, a long-time boat resident who has lived on his boat at Goose Pond for about six years, described his experience as he came face-to-face with the flames.
"My neighbor saw it - woke everybody up," Bodoh said. "We realized we couldn't get off the dock because the fire was blocking our path. Luckily, we had enough time to get the boats started up. My neighbors got theirs off, but I didn't get mine out in time, so I have a dinghy prepared just for this reason."
Bodoh's boat was saved, and said Scottsboro's Fire and Rescue were quick to action. He is thankful the fire remained as contained as it did, but the damaged and destroyed boats were worth it if it meant no one got hurt or killed.
"One of the boats that sank I sold to the couple about a year ago, and they were here the last four days," Bodoh said. "They just went home yesterday, so thank goodness they weren't here last night. It probably would've been a bad situation. I don't know if they would've been able to get out of there."
Stephen Clark of SNS Marine Towing and Salvage is working on getting these boats out of the water. And to him, these marina fires are all too familiar. He worked the County Park Marina fire nearly five years ago.
"County Park had an electrical fire on one of the first slips going onto the dock," Clark said. "The docks were wooden rather than floating in concrete and steel like ours are. The fire spread to the roof, and it went all the way down to the dock. It burned 36 boats, and eight people died."
The recovery of these boats could take up to two weeks. While salvage efforts continue, the marina office has advised that boating at Dock 6 must be supervised, and some boaters have already relocated their vessels to other docks.

The scene at Goose Pond Marina.