Fire engulfs boat at James Creek Marina as people slept nearby on dock

People woke up to smoke and flames at the James Creek Marina after a boat caught fire early Thursday morning, according to D.C. fire officials.

Calls to 911 starting coming in from people on nearby boats on the dock at about 5 a.m. When fire crews arrived at the scene, people were evacuated from the dock.

Pictures and video from the D.C. fire department showed strong, red flames coming from the top of the boat and thick smoke in the air.

The boat is a total loss but crews were able to put out the fire before it fully spread to nearby boats. The boats next to the fire were heat damaged. Crews remained on the scene to extinguish any remaining hot spots.

No one was on the boat when the fire happened and no injuries were reported, according to officials.

A woman who was sleeping nearby on a boat described what it was like to wake up to the fire. She saw flames “shooting up in the air” and the boat looked like it was “totally going to be destroyed.”

“I watched as the fireboat came up and tried to put water from the river on there, and that just had this big gigantic black cloud of smoke, and it just ran all the way up the dock up into the parking lot,” the woman said. “And it was amazing, so it was pretty difficult for them to put that one out.”