Two injured in Lake Union boat explosion

An explosion and fire aboard a pleasure boat tied to a fuel dock on the west shore of Lake Union late Saturday morning sent one person to the hospital and damaged another boat in an adjacent marina.

Quick work by people at Morrison's North Star Marine Fuel Dock, 2732 Westlake Ave. N., may have averted a much larger fire.

"I heard an explosion and I saw the guys at the fuel dock chopping the line, and pushed the boat out away from the fuel dock," said Craig Edwards, who was working on his boat at nearby Diamond Marina.

Edwards called 911 and the Seattle Harbor Patrol and "told them to get over here quick because it's burning." The Seattle Fire Department responded to the fuel dock, but the boat had drifted away.

Edwards watched the burning pleasure boat, a Uniflite cabin cruiser about 30 feet long, slowly drift into a 64-foot motor yacht moored in Diamond Marina.

The starboard bow of the yacht was damaged by heat, causing an estimated $30,000 in damage, before the Uniflite drifted free, he said.

The harbor patrol arrived and extinguished the fire aboard the Uniflite shortly after noon. The boat, its deck and cabin areas blackened, continued to move south — it's not clear whether it was drifting or was towed by the harbor patrol — as a thin cloud of dark smoke spread over Lake Union.

The boat, which was recently purchased for $4,000, was a total loss, said Fire Department spokeswoman Dana Vander Houwen. The cause of the fire was a vapor explosion.

Westlake Avenue North was briefly closed.

Seattle Fire Department Deputy Chief Jesse Youngs said one person was taken to Harborview Medical Center; a second person's injuries were not as serious. It wasn't immediately known whether the injured people were on the boat or on the dock.

The owner of Morrison's North Star Marine could not be reached for comment.

Harbor police towed the wreckage to a police facility on the north side of Lake Union.

Benjamin J. Romano: 206- 464-2149 or bromano@seattletimes.com