ORONO, Minn. — Multiple boats and a portion of a Lake Minnetonka marina were damaged early Wednesday morning after a fire, possibly started by fireworks, broke out on the dock.
The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office said surveillance video showed "multiple individuals" lighting fireworks on the docks in Brown's Bay just before the fire started and then "running from the marina."
The fire, which multiple agencies responded to around 1:45 a.m. on July 5, damaged five boats, the HCSO said.
Several people were detained by police in connection to the blaze Wednesday morning, and one 18-year-old was arrested and booked into the Hennepin County Jail for criminal damage to property. According to jail records, the 18-year-old was never formally charged and released on Thursday, July 6.
Boat rental company Your Boat Club confirmed the fire occurred at its business, with five pontoons destroyed and losses estimated to be between $100,000 and $250,000.
"The fire got so intense that it actually melted everything on top of the pontoon," Brown's Bay location manager Matt Sutton said. "It's similar to a car essentially, too. So the car starts on fire, everything burns down to the core and the frame and that's exactly what happened."
"It's frustrating especially when it's an avoidable accident like this too and it really comes down to common sense," he continued. "But again, we recognize that things happen and there's nothing you can do about it. We were kind of in shock for a while, for a few hours this morning, and then we just continued on and figured out what we could do to scramble to get people on different boats at different locations."
Your Boat Club operates 27 locations statewide. The Brown's Bay location remained in business Wednesday despite the fire. The damaged boats were moved to a dock near Water Patrol headquarters.
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