Originally published Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 1:28 PM

Neighbor rescues man from Lake Washington boat fire

A boat on Lake Washington caught fire this afternoon.

STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Water from a Mercer Island Police patrol boat sprays a pleasure boat that had been fully engulfed in flames 500 yards off the shore in Lake Washington near the Newcastle Beach Park in Bellevue. The driver escaped the flames by diving into the water and swimming to shore. No one else was aboard the boat that was then towed and tied up at the Newcastle Beach Park.

A resident helped rescue a man who'd leapt from a burning boat in the middle of Lake Washington about 12:30 p.m. today, the Bellevue Fire Department said.

The man was alone on a boat in the middle of the channel between Mercer Island and the eastern shore of Lake Washington, west of the 5000 block of Lakehurst Lane Southeast in Bellevue, when his engine started to make some noise, said Bellevue fire spokesman Lt. Eric Keenan. When the man opened the vessel's engine compartment, a fire flared up.

The man jumped overboard and began swimming for land, Keenan said. A man on shore saw the fire and went out in his own boat to fish out the man, who escaped with minor burns, Keenan said.

A Seattle police boat responded to the fire and towed the damaged boat to Newcastle Beach Park. The boat's cabin was burned by the fire, Keenan said.

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