but right now we want to get back to
this breaking news from Detroit's marina
where a piece of Detroit history going
up in flames
the Detroit Bob Lowe boat is on fire
right now our Nick Monacelli arriving
there on their scene joining us live out
on the water Nick what do we know
so unfortunately everyone we don't know
a whole lot right now but obviously you
can see right behind me the Bob Lowe
boat there is in flames I did talk to
the Deputy Fire Commissioner here in the
city of Detroit saying that this is
already a defensive attack meaning there
is absolutely no chance they're going to
get on that boat and try to put out this
fire now Dave Klein is a photographer
working on this and he's gonna zoom and
pan back and forth to show you all the
destruction of this boat this is a very
old boat and that means that there is a
lot of wood on here dry wood that is
going to go up in flames and there's not
much on this old bob low boat to do
anything to suppress the fire no
sprinklers no fire walls nothing to help
this so as you're looking at all these
flames all the fire crews can do is just
stand back in fact Dave if we can go
down here where the firefighters are
standing on the dock some of their water
hoses aren't even reaching just to the
the front of that boat or that would be
the front of the boat yeah cuz the back
of it is on the other side where the
staircases are their water is barely
getting to it so they've got an aerial
truck on top of it but again when you're
in a defensive mode like this all you
can do is just sit and try to protect
the other areas because there is no
saving the bob low boats and actually if
you can look towards the other side all
the way towards the back Dave you can
start to see how the fire is also
spreading and moving down across the the
ceiling of that will be the third or I
guess the first floor of the boat so you
can see that it's not only just the
outside of it that fire is moving
throughout the entire boat so this thing
unfortunately is not going to be able to
save now we also have sky 4 overhead I
want to show you that vantage point as
well you can get a much better
perspective of just how intense and how
unfortunate this is for this boat this
piece of Detroit history
the entire thing now engulfed in flames
now we got the calls starting at about
11:40 11:45 that the boat was on fire
we've heard from a couple witnesses that
they thought they saw somebody out here
working or maybe starting a fire that is
all
unconfirmed so we're not going to talk
about what causes fire just yet because
frankly I don't think anybody knows
unless somebody was here
and saw it for themselves but let's come
back down here to the the picture on the
ground now because from this vantage
point you can actually see the fire
spreading even further and now we're
starting to see that black smoke which
just means that more and more fuel is
being added to the fire not necessarily
gasoline fuel but in fire terms that
means anything that can burn and burn
easily so all of the wood anything else
on that boat that is going to cause this
fire to go up in flames
and yet stay this way for quite some
time and as everyone is watching this at
home right now you can clearly
understand why this is a big problem for
the Detroit Fire Department because as
you can see the closer they can get to
this boat is the dock they can't get on
the other side of this right now now
Detroit does have their own fire boat
I'm not sure if it's in commission right
now I'm not sure if it's working but
they do have pumpers that they can't get
on the water on the Detroit River here
and try to get some water on the
opposite side of the boat where the
majority of the flames are raging and
where the fire is focused at this moment
but again every corner of this boat
except for the the front of the bow and
the very back end of this has been
touched by flames already and I can only
imagine it's only a matter of time and -
that fire keeps spreading further and
further and further and golfing again
this place this piece of Detroit history
it is a sad moment as you watch what is
happening here and again I wish that we
could do or the firefighters could do
more but they're just kind of in a stuck
position they're not going to go on on
the deck they're not gonna walk up their
boat all they can do is just sit here
and try to attack it from this one
vantage point that they have a fraud a
lot of people have some great memories
of riding on this boat Nick thank you
for the update there whether you are
regular in Detroit or whether you're new
to Detroit it's the the boat that you
see there docks near Sinbad's and
rooster tail of course we're gonna
continue to follow this story for you on
air here and online at
clickondetroit.com we're also live
streaming it for you on our Facebook
page as well