'Suspicious' fire destroys boat in harbor

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

A blaze that Santa Barbara fire officials are calling “suspicious” destroyed a 35-foot sailboat docked in the harbor yesterday morning and shot flames as high as 25-feet before being extinguished.
City Fire Marshall Joe Poire said the investigation is in its initial stages and would not comment on whether arson is a suspected cause.

“It’s under investigation as a suspicious fire at this point,” Poire said. “We can’t divulge a lot about the investigation.”
The boat, which is owned by Rob Kirkcaldie and is known as “Diamond,” was docked in slip F-19 of Marina 1 – just feet from the Santa Barbara Dry Dock facility that is also owned by Kirkcaldie – when it burst into flames.
While fire officials remained tight-lipped on the details surrounding the fire, Kirkcaldie said there is no doubt in his mind someone purposely destroyed his boat.
“It was definitely arson,” Kirkcaldie told the Daily Sound yesterday. “It was designed to destroy it.”
Kirkcaldie said he suspects his former wife of burning the boat, while his ex-wife, who asked not to be identified, said she believes Kirkcaldie started the fire.
Kirkcaldie said fire officials told him the electric and gas systems on the boat did not appear to be the cause.
“It was evident that that was all in working condition,” Kirkcaldie said. “Someone threw [flammable] agent onto the deck and canvasses.”
Kirkcaldie said the fire “totaled” the boat and caused about $50,000 in damage. But he said the results could have been much worse had the blaze jumped to nearby boats, some of which were occupied at the time of the fire.
Poire acknowledged the danger of boat fires and credited Harbor Patrol officers for arriving on the scene quickly and dousing the blaze.
“They’re very dangerous,” Poire said of boat fires. “They can skip from boat to boat to boat. It’s not like a city street where you can just drive up and apply water to anywhere.”
In order to prevent such fires from spreading, Poire noted the heavy response by the fire department, which included four fire engines, a ladder truck and a battalion chief.
Fire Battalion Chief Andrew DiMizio, who responded to the boat fire, said people living on nearby boats also helped limit the damage by battling the blaze with their own hoses.
DiMizio, who has worked at the fire department for 28 years, said boat fires aren’t rare.
“We have had several boat fires for different reasons,” he said, adding that the last one he remembers was about a year and a half ago, when a commercial fishing boat caught fire.
Poire said anyone with information about the fire should call the Fire Department at 965-5254.