The 46-foot fishing boat, Wired, burns to the water line on Friday, June 28. The two men on board, Jerry Mathieu of Corpus Christi and Jerry Webb of Port Aransas, were rescued unharmed by a nearby U.S. Customs boat. The boat was carrying 700 gallons of diesel when the fire started in the forward engine. In the photo at left, a nearby tugboat attempted to contain the fire. The fire blazed late into Friday night. Coast Guard and environmental officials decided to let the diesel burn itself out, Mathieu said.
Photo by Jerry Webb
The Wired, a 46-foot Bertram was destroyed by a fire that erupted on Friday, June 28, as the boat was heading north in the Lydia Ann Channel. This photo was taken on Saturday morning, June 29, after the 700 gallons of diesel on board burned out. TowBoat US is in the process of salvaging what’s left. A crane on a barge is expected to remove the skeleton of the boat this week, according to Randall Moore who shot this photo.
Chapman said he didn’t see anyone on board the boat when the Heald answered the call about 12:30 p.m.
Jerry Webb of Port Aransas, one of the men on the boat, said he got word the boat was still burning at 7 p.m. or later on Saturday.
“It had 700 gallons of diesel in it,” Webb said. “It was like a bathtub full of diesel.”
Webb said he and the boat’s owner, Jerry Mathieu of Corpus Christi, were taking the boat to House of Boats in Rockport for maintenance.
Mathieu and Webb were neighbors in Corpus Christi in the early 1970s, and they fished together for 40 years.
So on Friday morning about 11, they headed north into the Lydia Ann Channel and were going slow because the bottom was overgrown with algae, “so we couldn’t go fast,” Webb said.
Since the boat hadn’t been operated since last September, they were keeping a close eye on the gauges, Webb said.
They noticed the forward engine heating up, and Mathieu went to check on it. The engine room was full of smoke, and Webb said Mathieu told him he couldn’t see flames because of the smoke. When Webb took a look, “there were plenty of flames,” he said.
A customs boat passing by asked if they needed help, and the men asked them to stand by and be ready to take them aboard.
“I was standing there with a little fire extinguisher in my hand, and they said, ‘You need to get off,’” Mathieu said.
The boat was fully enflamed before the Coast Guard was called, Webb said.
“It was fast and furious. I was amazed. I didn’t think diesel could burn like that,” Mathieu said.
“Fortunately, that customs boat was close by and got us off,” he added.
The customs boat took the two men to Coast Guard Station Port Aransas where they filled out forms on the incident.
One of the big tugboats rafted up nearby on the San Jose Island side of the channel offered to spray the boat with water as it drifted to the shallows.
“It (the fire) never stopped,” Webb said.
He said he suspects it was a turbo fire because it was an older diesel engine.
Mathieu met with the Coast Guard and General Land Office officials Saturday morning, and they told him they were going to let the diesel burn out.
“I guess I’m out of boating,” Mathieu said.
“I’m 74, and as much as I loved it, I don’t see me buying a new boat,” he added.
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