Coroner: 4 of the 8 victims killed in Alabama boat dock fire were children

At least four of the people who died Monday morning when an Alabama boat dock caught fire were children, a coroner said Tuesday.

Fire ripped through the Jackson County Park Marina in Scottsboro, Ala., around 12:40 a.m. Monday, killing at least eight people.

Of those, half were between the ages of 7 and 16, Jackson County Coroner John Jordan told AL.com.

The other four victims are likely adults, but no one has been publicly identified yet.

“People ... were jumping into the water, either off the back of their boats or retreating to the end of the dock just trying to avoid the fire before they had to [confront it],” Scottsboro fire Chief Gene Necklaus told HLN on Tuesday. “Several people would pile up in a boat, it appears, and then try to push away from the dock. But boats were burning, floating off, bumping into each other and setting other boats on fire just as fast as you can imagine.”

Witnesses said wind quickly swept flames down a wooden dock where an undetermined number of people were sleeping on boats.

Officials said the fire started on the shore side of the dock, leaving people living on the houseboats trapped with no escape.

Approximately 35 boats were destroyed in the blaze and seven people injured, including some with symptoms of hypothermia.

Crews will raise each sunken craft and check inside each to determine whether additional people may have died, Chief Necklaus said, but officials were optimistic that the death toll would not rise.

Investigators hadn’t determined the cause of the blaze, which erupted early Monday, but Chief Necklaus said they were narrowing their focus to a vessel that was docked in an area where witnesses said the flames began.

“It’s fair to say they are at least looking at one boat in particular, not to say that they won’t rule that out and move on to the next area,” he said at a news conference.

David Kennamer — who has run a store at the marina for about two years, selling fishing gear and shaved ice treats to kids — said the only blessing was the fire happened during a slow time when relatively few people were sleeping in boats at the dock. A blaze during the summer could have been worse.

“If this had happened in July it would have been so much more tragic,” he said.