URBANNA, Va. – The docks are still smoldering at the Dozier's Port Urbanna Marina, where an inferno killed two people and destroyed 20 boats.
"You can see how all of this stuff is just washed up,” said Bill Hight, a close friend of the victims. State Police have not named the victims, so CBS 6 will not identify them until family is definitely contacted. .
"What you had was burning boats going by,” said Hight said.
The smoke still rises from the charred docks, where dozens of boats went up flames early Monday morning.
Cell phone video captured the inferno as the sun rose in the sky.
“That was a very somber, somber day,” Hight said.
Marina fire in Urbanna (PHOTO: Dave Lipscombe)
It was also painful for Hight after he learned his close friends died in the fire.
He described the couple as good hearted people.
"They were just people who enjoyed the marina life and boating, which is a big part of our economy in Middlesex County,” Hight said.
Hight said the victim's had been living on the marina in a 50-foot yacht while their Urbanna home was under renovations.
"It was a beautiful boat that they had bought a couple of years ago,” he said.
His own 50-foot boat sustained $4,000 worth of damage from the fire. Hight said he is thankful it can be repaired, but what still haunts him is that his friends lost their lives in that marina.
"Everybody that knew them….liked them and missed them so much today,” he said.
The tragedy has Hight and others wondering what went wrong.
The fire is under investigation.
"I certainly hope that they can get that taken care of,” Hight said. “So the cleanup can really begin and we can get back to whatever normalcy we're going to have.”
