Fires on opposite sides of Tortola made for a busy Saturday night for Virgin Islands Fire and Rescue Services.
The department was called around 7:50 p.m. in relation to two boats that were ablaze near Frenchmans Cay.
“I heard an explosion and you could see a glow in the distance,” he said.
Chief Fire Officer Zebalon McLean said firefighters extinguished the fire on a speedboat that was parked on land before turning their attention to the second boat, which was in the water about 300 metres away.
He said he believes both boats were totalled.
The fact that the boats were so far apart has prompted an ongoing investigation as to whether one fire caused the other or if there were two separate causes, according to the chief.
Mr. Keegan said he thinks the boats were too far away for one of the fires to cause the other, explaining that one boat was right by the bridge connecting Tortola to Frenchmans Cay while the other was halfway between the bridge and Sopers Hole.
Mr. McLean wouldn’t comment as to whether foul play is suspected, but he admitted that the question of how two separate fires started on boats so far apart is “very interesting.”
About an hour later, the department started receiving calls about an East End apartment that was on fire.
Mr. McLean said that by the time the fire truck arrived at the location, Deputy Chief Fire Officer William Penn and another firefighter had already extinguished the flames using what the chief called “rudimentary methods.”
He said the interior of the apartment suffered damaged, including to the structure’s roof, ceiling, and the items inside of it.
The cause of that fire is under investigation, too.
Mr. McLean said part of the challenge of responding to the far ends of the island is the department’s limited resources.
The agency only has two trucks, both of which are stationed in Road Town, he said.
“We’d love to have a truck in West End and a truck in East End, but then it would be hard to explain if something happened in Road Town and we weren’t able to respond quickly,” he said.
He added that when the first fire happened on Saturday, he dispatched one truck while assigning more officers to the second truck in case another fire broke out.
After the West End fire was under control, the truck there travelled back east to assist with the other blaze, he added.
“With house fires, we usually send two trucks because we might need all the manpower and supplies we have,” he explained.
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