Fire destroys $40,000 boat at Dania marina

Couple and dog escape

Flames ripped through a boat in Dania Beach early Wednesday, burning it practically down to the water line and completely destroying the 42-foot Chris Craft valued at $40,000, officials said.

The boat caught fire shortly after 4:30 a.m. at the Dania Beach Marina, 151 N. Beach Road.

Named Lady Di, the boat was home to Carolyn Grasso, her husband and their small dog named Cocoa.

“We got out of the boat in just enough time. One more minute and we wouldn’t be here right now,” Grasso told reporters a few hours after the fire.

No one was hurt in the fire — likely because of a timely warning, a fire official said.

The occupants of a neighboring boat noticed the flames and began banging on the Chris-Craft, according to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Michael Kane.

“These folks had very good neighbors. These neighbors alerted them early on in the event,” Kane said.

Greg Heath lives on a neighboring boat and helped make sure Grasso and her husband woke up.

“I started pounding on the door,” Heath said. He estimates it took barely a minute before the entire boat was engulfed in flames.

Some 60 firefighters from Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue, the agency’s marine unit and Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue were at the scene.

“It took firefighters approximately two hours to fully extinguish the fire, which was declared out just before 7 a.m.,” Kane said.

No other boats at the marina were affected by the blaze. However, about a dozen people on other nearby boats had to be temporarily evacuated until investigators determined it was safe for them to return to their vessels.

How the fire started remains under investigation and Carolyn Grasso isn’t certain what she, her husband and their dog will do now.

“I did lose everything I own. That’s my house and I just have the clothes on my back,” she said.