Boat owners, marina picking up pieces after fire

AVA, IL (KFVS) - The Kinkaid Marina in Ava, Illinois is cleaning up after a fire damaged five boats, including one that sank.

One boat owner came out to see the damage for himself.

"I didn't think it was this much damage, this is really something," boat owner Don Hesse said.

He still can't believe he lost his boat.

"I just got a call on the telephone saying that some of the boats were burning down here and they thought one of them was mine,"  Hesse said. "It looked almost like the boat next to it, it had a flybridge on top of it... That's the horns, and that's part of the seat that was inside, and that's the roof like the roof hanging over and everything is gone inside, it's just a mess."

Hesse said he thinks the fire started from a boat owner winterizing their boat.

"The guy next to me left the heater on his boat, took his dog for a walk and his boat caught on fire and his is on the bottom and caught mine on fire," he said.

He's glad the fire didn't take down the entire dock.

"If there was wind yesterday, I think this whole dock would have went down, I really do, because once one of them catches on fire they just keep going they're just made of fiber glass and wood that's it," Hesse said.

Skip Dudley said he's lucky that he didn't lose his boat.

"I knew it was my neighbor's boats, I just came down to make sure mine was good and the neighbors next to me it's just a shame, it's a shame their boat's gone," Dudley said.

"My wife bought it she passed away and it was more or less her boat than anything she named it Lilly Pad one, two and three it means a lot to me a lot of good years, but that's the way it goes."

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