Story/Photos (below story) by Jack Healy

Fire broke out in a Seaford houseboat community, Hidden Harbor West Marina, located in Seaford Harbor Section of Seaford, early Sunday morning November 18th destroying three vessels and sending one man to the hospital.

The alarm of fire was reported to the Wantagh Fire Department at 5:06 am and had units responding to this houseboat community located in the Seaford Harbor Section of Seaford.   

Wantagh Fire Department officials say the blaze, which occurred at 220 Shore Rd. in the Hidden Harbor Marina, appears to be accidental.

The fire charred two 45-foot boats and one 35-foot vessel, leaving one of the boats listing and on the verge of sinking, another toppled on its side and the burnt remains of another on an island just across from the marina. This blazing houseboat was cut adrift by neighbors in an attempt to say the rest of the boats moored nearby and probably did save other boats from going on fire. 

Wantagh Fire Department officials said the blaze began on the smaller houseboat and spread to the two boats docked on either side. 

A group of residents from the cluster of about a dozen boats apparently tried to extinguish the fire themselves, said Wantagh Fire Chief Jim Johnston. They used garden hoses and small fire extinguishers to no avail.

By the time fire trucks arrived, the group had cut one of the burning boats loose, sending it adrift down the canal hoping to prevent the fire from spreading. A resident ferried firefighters in a skiff to get to that blaze. They strung a hose across the canal to douse it.

Firefighters had to stretch 500 feet of 5 inch hose to their engines to reach the fire in the Marina.  Only minor injures were reported and the fire department was under the command of Chief Jimmy Johnston.  Firefighters finally pulled out of the marina almost 4 hours after the fire. 

County fire marshals were investigating the cause of the fire, focusing on a kerosene heater and stove, according to one fire official.