12/03/2026
Feeling thankful ... feeling stupid .. feeling proud ..feeling like i miss my old eyebrows .. all kinds of stuff going on in my head due to a rather dramatic event the other night ... its taken me a couple of days to get my head around what actually happened and the amazing outcome and the pure foolhardiness of my actions .
Right .. so its around 10pm , im chilling on my narrowboat when suddenly I hear screams ... pure terror screams ... help ! Help ! Help some one was screaching .
I came hooning off my boat to see wtf was going on .
Wont fib... initially a ran out with something to clobber someone with.. I thought someone had been dragged into the bushes on the dark tow path .
I witnessed a boaters worst nightmare ..a boat ON FIRE ..!flames licking out the bow ... inferno blasting out of the chimney flu ..
A terrified fellow boater was howling for assistance, not knowing what to do himseld as he was in such a panic.. stood there with his head in his hands literally watching his entire life go up in flames .
HIs two dogs were scared stiff . shaking literally like squitting dogs .
In a nutshell... what had happened was ...
He was new to boating ... overloaded his log burner...one things led to another and eeeekk ! He had most unfortunately set fire to the walls and ceiling of his boat !
Pine softwood cladding , from the 70's with polystyrene insulation behind it .... BoOm !
Luckily for him , I had loads of fire extinguisher on board my boat , i know exactly where they were so grabbed them rapid and basic breathing aperatus in the form of a spray painters mask . I only had that to hand as my baby boy Oliver was playing with it hours before ...it wasnt perfect but gave me the opportunity to stay inside the black smoke filled boat for a bit longer
I've seen a few boat fires ... and you dont have long until its too late ... seconds not minutes .
Extinguishers down the chimney flu... all over the log burner ... but every time we put it out .. it just flared up again .
The ceiling was on fire ... walls were on fire ..i had to rip the wooden cladding off the walls and ceiling using my hands as the polystyrene insulation behind it was on fire .... liquid plastic dripping from everywhere.
The weapons at hand were a big margarine tub and a watering can...
We carried on as a chain tipping in as much as we could my flippin eyeballs burning ...the owner trying to drag me out , he's still squealing ...
Tub after tub of canal water and we managed to hold the flames back until the fire brigade arrived .
They said without a doubt ... without our stupidness ... that boat was a doomed .. a mans worldly belongings gone .
I'm proud I managed to help a fellow boater but thinking over it pi**ed off with myself for putting myself in danger .
Something else took control .. i felt rational ...i knew we could sort it..but still !
I've never met a more grateful man than the bloke I heard scream on the towpath .
Still got his home and everything in it .
To end the evening... I put him and his two dogs up .. stay over at chipfats ... we ate some home cooked chilli id had brewing on my stove.
Chatted for hours....
His two lovley dogs chilled , infact the tiny teacup yorkie slept on my pillow with me .
Moral of the story ...MAKE CERTAIN YOU HAVE FIRE EXTINGUISHERS .... MAKE CERTAIN YOU KNOW WHERE THEY ARE ....HIS SMOKE ALARMS TOOK AGES TO GO OFF !
PROBABLY A GOOD IDEA TO CHECK IF YOURS ARE WORKING ... SERIOUSLY ###
I suppose it proved something to me about myself .... some folk run away from a burning building ... some run into it ...
Foolhardy
Im quite content that I did the right thing .
