WALDPORT – The fire that destroyed a small boat Tuesday night near the mouth of Alsea Bay that drew first responders from three fire agencies, an ambulance service, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and an overnight search by the U.S. Coast Guard appears to be a solstice party that got out of control.
Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue officials said Thursday that remnants of the wood and fiberglas boat washed ashore near where there were piles of firewood and several bottles of alcohol.
The small, recreational boat went up in flames Tuesday evening near the mouth of Alsea Bay, prompting evening and overnight searches by firefighters, the U.S. Coast Guard and Lincoln County Sheriffs deputies. Although the homeowner on a cliff above the bay heard screams, there were no indication that anyone was on board or in danger.
Three Coast Guard helicopters from North Bend staggered their search through the night until Wednesday morning without finding evidence of people who could have been in the boat. A Coast Guard spokesman in North Bend said there were no reports of anyone in the boat but that an overnight search was “a normal process.”
“It’s a normal procedure,” said Wesley Trull, a civilian search and rescue coordinator in North Bend. “We try to err on the side of of caution.”
The fire was first spotted by Yachats firefighters from U.S. Highway 101 near the Hilltop Café as they were returning from an ambulance transport to Newport. Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue was dispatched at 5:55 p.m. after a nearby resident spotted the flames and called 9-1-1.
Judi Robert-Cahill lives just behind the Hilltop overlooking the bay. She told YachatsNews on Wednesday that she heard “blood curdling screams” just after the boat caught on fire just 100 yards from her house and then called 9-1-1. “I thought someone was on fire, not just the boat,” she said.
Robert-Cahill said she then heard voices, but could not tell whether they were from the boat, from shore or in the water. When rescuers began appearing she saw flashlights moving across the sand dunes in the Bayshore community to the north.
The boat was near the “jaws” of the bay when it caught fire and then drifted out to sea.
COCF&R launched its rescue boat from the Port of Alsea and called for assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard, which diverted a helicopter from North Bend and sent a boat from Newport.
COCF&R Lt. Erich Knudson said there were reports of people on the beach near the Bayshore community “but they scattered” when Jeff Mathia, general manager of Pacific West Ambulance arrived from the north side of the bay.
Search of the area by boat and air were unable to find anyone in the water, Knudson said. Sheriff’s deputies on ATVs searched the shoreline south and north of the bay entrance late Tuesday night to look for people and remnants of the boat, he said.
Knudson said Thursday that the surf finally turned the boat over, extinguishing the fire. Knudson said there were no reports of missing people and there were no empty boat trailers or vehicles in the port’s parking lot.
Knudson said the cause is still under investigation and asked that anyone with information on the individuals on the beach at the time of the fire or the owner of the boat call the sheriff’s office at 541-265-4231.
