By Kevin Butler
Daily Breeze
Copyright 2007 Copley Press, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
LONG BEACH, Calif. — A 39-foot recreation boat exploded in a Long Beach shipping channel Monday morning, injuring two men and leaving the craft in pieces.
The explosion occurred around 10:50 a.m. near 1400 Pier C in Channel No. 3 — just west of Pico Avenue and the Los Angeles River, authorities said.
One man had second-degree burns on his lower back, left arm and head, and an open fracture to his right ankle, Long Beach firefighter Will Nash said. The other man reportedly had less serious injuries.
Only part of the top of the wood-framed Consolidated boat, built in 1946, remained after the explosion, which scattered wood and metal debris.
The two men, ages 52 and 67, had been taking the boat from the Colonial marina in Wilmington to the Port of Long Beach to have its hull repainted, fire Capt. Mike DuRee said.
The 67-year-old man, whose brother owns the boat, said the pair had been running the craft for about an hour without any sign of trouble, DuRee said.
“Nothing on the boat pre-warned them of the impending explosion” of the craft, which is equipped with two gasoline-powered engines, DuRee said.
Dennis Rodgers, who was staying on a nearby docked boat and helped rescue the two men, said he had just dressed and left his craft when he heard the explosion.
“It was so loud that I thought a plane had crashed,” he said. Rodgers said he saw “smoke and wood flying everywhere.”
He and two others ran to the boats that rescued the injured men.
One of the men appeared badly injured, with his foot “nearly blown off,” Rodgers said.
The two men were taken by ambulance to St. Mary Medical Center, Nash said.
There did not appear to be a significant amount of fuel in the water after the blast, Nash said.