My Marina

I was dead tired when I drove toward Holiday Point Marina on the evening of April 15. Tom Fleck and I had just done a bicycle camping trip on the C&O Canal Towpath near Harpers Ferry. A cold beer and a hot meal were the only things on our brains. As I approached the marina entrance, a shot of adrenaline hit my bloodstream.

Ron Sinclair’s white Jeep blocked the entrance. Ron was pacing, talking on his cell phone, head down, one arm waving, unaware of our presence. He looked up and walked over to the truck. "It’s you guys," he said flatly. "You OK?" I asked. "What’s with the Jeep in the entry way?" "You haven’t been here, have you," he answered. "You missed it!" "What?" "The miracle…"

Ron… a matter-of-fact accountant, does not use the word "miracle." Tom and I were alarmed. We hurried over to Fantastik, his Gibson 42 houseboat at the end of A Dock near the marsh. When we got there, we understood Ron’s remark. Steaming black stubble replaced the tall marsh grasses that once waved in the breeze, protecting wildlife. Steam rose from the muck and charred foliage.

Michele was on Fantastik, her face swollen and tear stained. Tommy Solomon sat with her in the galley. His white T-shirt looked like an oil rag. His face was blackened with soot, white circles around his eyes. He talked fast and gestured wildly as he recounted "the miracle."

"I saw two kids back there running, and the next thing I knew, everything was on fire. It happened fast… just like that. It reached my equipment in a few seconds. He pointed to the melted fiberglass and shriveled plastic of the trailer, sheds, and boats he called home and work. The wind whipped and blew the fire toward A Dock and the marina. The heat was intense. Flaming embers were everywhere, landing on boats, canvas covers, and marina equipment. If the fire got past my shop to boats on A Dock, there would be an explosion… and if one boat went, others would follow."

Michele picked up the story. "We thought we were going to lose everything: the boat, our possessions, the marina… our lives. We panicked. We ran away from the fire. I left everything on the boat, and I put Freddy in the truck. We went to your house nearby, and I cried with your wife Nancy. We prayed together."

Tommy continued, "The fire department arrived real fast and started hosing everything down. Then the fire boats arrived in the creek and had everything wetted down within a few minutes. But the fire was still blazing and moving with the wind toward A Dock and the shops. It was as though the fire generated and fed on its own wind… I didn’t think we could stop it, and I stood on my trailer spraying everything with water, hoping I could keep the fire from burning up my work."

With her voice breaking, Michele said, "And then the wind shifted… it stopped for a second, and then turned itself around and blew in the opposite direction. It blew the fire back on itself, back on the burned marsh and mud. It died out as fast as it started... just like that. Ronnie, my brother, said it was a miracle."

Others were not as fortunate. Vessels stored on the hard near the marsh were burned severely. Tommy’s property suffered heat damage, but his heroic efforts to wet everything down prevented the fire from burning his residence and shop and from spreading to other boats.

When I arrived home that night, Nancy said she had already checked on Island Girl. The boat looked like a grilled marshmallow, covered in black soot. Nancy had swept most of the soot off the boat with a broom and assured me that our boat was OK.

In the days after the fire, I also inspected Island Girl for damage. She was just a few yards from the spot where the fire stopped. Charred embers landed on her deck, but they had cooled before touching down. They caused no damage to the 40-year-old gelcoat. A spark burned a small hole in her bimini top, but it’s nothing to worry about. Save for a few black smudges, Island Girl was fine.

The A Dock gang talked about nothing else for a week after the fire, about the quick work of the fire protection officials, about Tommy’s individual efforts, about almost losing everything, and about the miraculous wind-shift that saved the marina from destruction.