Sunken wreck crucial to Lake Mead fire investigation; Video shows flames engulfing houseboat

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Several of the burned-out boats now lying on the bottom of Lake Mead, including the boat that reportedly started a chain of at least 37 boats on fire early Sunday morning, are key pieces of evidence in an investigation that investigators say will take “several weeks.”

The sleepy “I” and “R” docks of the Las Vegas Boat Harbor Marina turned into a blazing inferno within minutes of the first report at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday. The port reported that 11 vessels had been destroyed and 26 others damaged.

One of those sunken boats is Judy Roman’s “home base.” Roman said she and her partner bought the 1993 houseboat at the start of the pandemic and only recently completed the renovation. She was in California when another boat owner alerted her that it had sunk.

Surveillance footage of their boat shows an empty deck at 00:30 before it is shut down at 00:38 due to heavy smoke and heat.

“We’re helpless because we’re so far away and it’s already happened,” Roman said during a virtual interview Thursday afternoon from the RV where she and her partner spend the other half of their time. Now it will be full-time. “It was our happy place, and it’s gone. I mean, literally gone.”

The National Park Service (NPS) is leading the investigation and expects that damage assessment and future cleanup work will take at least until July. Investigators have not yet determined the cause.

But according to other videos and interviews Bruce Nelson has seen, the marina’s vice president of operations said he believes the fire was an “accident” and “most likely an electrical fire.”

During an exclusive tour Thursday, Nelson identified the slipway at “I” Dock where the fire started in a houseboat. That boat is now under the slipway and is a key piece of evidence that investigators must recover.

“A good Samaritan pulled a boat out and created a fire break. Actually, two boats were pulled out by good Samaritans. I’m not sure who it was,” Nelson said during Thursday’s tour. “(They) probably saved the day as the fire continued to spread south and ruined all those boats.”

It spread north, Nelson said, by burning watercraft. He said the ropes securing them to their original slips burned, sending them drifting toward Dock “R,” which is now as visibly charred as Dock “I.”

Salvage and rescue operations cannot begin until the NPS grants approval. Owners are working through their insurance companies to recover sunken vessels, the largest of which is 55 feet long, Nelson said.

“Of course, these are just remnants of what they once were. They’re not nearly as big as they once were because most of the large surfaces above the water have burned and decayed,” Nelson said.

“We’ve seen a lot of different things over the years. This is the worst in terms of the number of boats lost and the damage to the docks. The structure needs to be replaced and there are things that need to be done that we just need to fix,” he said.

Until then, owners of boats still afloat are only allowed to use 30-minute slots by appointment to pick up their personal belongings. Roman said her insurance will likely only cover 50% of the value of her houseboat, prompting her family to start a GoFundMe campaign.

The pictures and memories she had on the houseboat are priceless to her.

“There are 36 families like me. Yes, it’s just heartbreaking,” Roman said. “I try not to think about the future because we have nothing to go back to.”

Nelson added that hired security personnel were on site before the fire on Sunday morning, but they were not trained to respond to a fire of this nature.