Fire in the hole is a warning that was called out to miners when explosives stashed in a hole in the wall of a mine were about to be detonated. It may also have referred to the lighting of the little hole in a cannon where gunpowder was packed and burned until it reached the main charge that fired the cannon.

But in this case, it was not “fire in the hole,” but rather “fire in the hold” of this boat. Around the end of May this year, fire broke out on this boat. The cause is thought to be a bad combination of gasoline fumes and electric sparks, but I’m not sure of that, since I wasn’t on the boat to know. The owner, who lived aboard had only one option and that was to jump into the water. Even so he got some burns, but he’ll be okay.

You may recognize the Royston Wrecks on the opposite shore. I posted photos of them in this post: https://wordsfromanneli.com/2016/04/06/royston-wrecks/

We were a good couple of miles away as the crow flies, maybe more, so the pictures are not very clear, but the smoke leaves no doubt about what was happening.

I’m not sure if this is the Comox fireboat (whose five-minute drive took an incredibly long time – not their finest hour, nor their usual response time) or the one from Powell River (which arrived  amazingly quickly from the mainland, across the Strait of Georgia).Both arrived on the scene about the same time, but too late to save the boat.

The fleet anchored in the bay could only stand and stare, and feel very sorry for the boat’s owner.