A 38-foot cabin cruiser left at Napatree Point since running aground in July has been destroyed after an early morning fire Tuesday.
Watch Hill Fire Chief Robert Peacock said a Bluff Avenue resident called in the fire around 2:10 a.m. reporting a boat was fully involved off the tip of Napatree Point. Fire officials arrived to find the cabin cruiser, which ran aground on July 9 and was abandoned, fully engulfed in flames.
Firefighters from the Watch Hill and Misquamicut fire departments used four ATVs to access the boat, which was located more than a mile out. Peacock said firefighters then used portable pumps to draw water from the ocean to extinguish the flames.
The response effort included 18 firefighters and Peacock said the mutual aid response from Misquamicut was requested due to concerns that the fire could spread into the sensitive ecological areas of Napatree. He said the two shoreline fire departments have an excellent working relationship and routinely respond with mutual aid to assist each other as needed.
On the boat, despite the owner having left it abandoned on the shoreline, the cabin cruiser was clearly spray painted with the words, “property of Taylor Swift.”
The cause of the fire is considered suspicious, officials said. Westerly police are investigating, officials said, and both the United States Coast Guard and Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management were notified.