Washington,DC, Yacht Club Fire Update: Pictures Of Its Buildings In Flames

Fire destroyed the clubhouse of District Yacht Club along with two other buildings early Monday, hours after a children's Christmas party, Washington fire officials said.

The District Yacht Club, a nonprofit yacht club established in 1955, is near the Washington Navy Yard in southeast Washington on a stretch of real estate along the Anacostia River known as Boathouse Row

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Members of the District Yacht Club threw a party for their children at the clubhouse, which could hold 250 people, Sunday afternoon. The last person to leave did so at 4 p.m. after cleaning up, the Washington Post reported Monday.

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District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services representative Vito Maggiolo said the firefighting crew was able to contain the fire, which engulfed the main buildings, within an hour of arriving at the scene at 3 a.m. He said the firefighters were able to prevent the blaze from reaching the 40 boats docked behind the building.

Maggiolo described the clubhouse as “completely on the ground.”

The firefighting team initially had trouble quenching the blaze because the yacht club was in an isolated area that did not have a reliable water supply, Maggiolo said. The yacht club’s fire hydrants were not connected to water mains, resulting in minimal water pressure, Maggiolo said. The responding crew evaded the problem by calling in a fireboat to subdue the flames from the Anacostia River, he said.

Despite containing the main fire in the clubhouse relatively quickly, firefighters continued battling hot spots on the building’s exterior for several hours before being able to advance into the debris, the Associated Press reported Monday. Maggiolo said a kitchen, lounge and workshop constructed from wood 60 years ago all had been destroyed by the fire. He said the fire was able to spread across the property quickly because the embers were disbursed by heavy winds and cold temperatures.

No one was injured in the incident, local reports said.

The financial repercussions from the fire remain unclear, Victor Fenwick, a club representative, said.

“We lost everything as far as the clubhouse is concerned,” Fenwick said, adding the yacht club had insurance and members would meet soon to decide on a course of action.

"I don't know what we're going to do because we use this [clubhouse] for everything," an unidentified club member said.

Fenwick, the manager of radiology at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, said the District Yacht Club was created for “affordable boating” and was less tony than alternatives, describing it as more “peanut butter and crackers” than champagne and caviar. He said most of the boats docked on the club's property, which is owned by the National Park Service, were second hand.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, the reason for the fire had yet to determined.