2 people, dog rescued from burning boat

6/18/2001

MARBLEHEAD - Two people and their dog abandoned their boat when it caught fire off Kelleys Island yesterday.

The Marblehead Coast Guard station got a call from the vessel “Ther Yet?”at 11:44 a.m. reporting a fire in the engine room of the 32-foot Carver Mariner. The boat is owned by Robert Aglin of Gahanna, Ohio, though the names of the people on board were not available last night.

The Coast Guard sent a 21-foot and a 41-foot boat to respond to the distress call, which originated about a mile north of the Marblehead station.

“They could see it out their window,” said Petty Officer Paul Roszkowski, who works out of the Cleveland office.

The boat's passengers and the dog abandoned ship and were taken to shore by a boater that stopped to help.

The Coast Guard fought the fire. At 12:54 p.m., the boat sank. Nobody was injured.

“The 21-foot [boat] set up a security zone to keep all the other boats out of the area,” PO Roszkowski said.

It was not clear how the fire started.