DONT DIVE STEILACOOM MARINA/SALTERS POINT

[ScubaWarrior]

Found out this morning:

Steilacoom Marina Burns In Raging Fire

Posted: 5:34 am PDT October 9, 2009
Updated: 4:45 pm PDT October 9, 2009
STEILACOOM, Wash -- Investigators are trying to determine what caused a towering fire that broke out at the Steilacoom Marina early Friday.
No one was hurt in the intense flames that were first spotted by guards at McNeil Island Corrections Center across the bay at about 4:45 a.m.
Crews from University Place, Fort Lewis and Steilacoom as well as fire boats from Anderson Island and Tacoma came in to battle the fire and were still putting out hot spots eight hours after it began.
Homes on the bluff 30 or 40 feet above the fire were silhouetted by smoke and fire in the still-dark sky. Residents there were evacuated after fire officials became concerned about possible explosions from the fire.
Firefighters took a defensive stance to keep the flames from spreading as the burning wooden structures quickly escalated into a huge fire. The conditions were too dangerous for firefighters to enter the marina, fire officials said.
Steilacoom Mayor Ron Lucas said the owner of the marina and her father, who sometimes stayed in the main building, were not present at the time of the fire.
The boathouse and the main pier of the old marina burned to charred skeletons. The main two-story marina building, which was mostly office space and held a few small boats, was flattened.
A raised dock to the left of the building, where only a few boats were stored, was not damaged.
Crews are now working to clean up the debris and pollution left by the fire. In the wreckage there are tanks, oil drums, old engines and equipment.
A boom has also been deployed to contain pollution spilled into the Puget Sound.

[Tom Nic]

Yikes! That's crazy!

[Dusty2]

Wow! another landmark gone. Sad

[spatman]

there was a little discussion of it earlier here, including a link to a news report...

[ScubaWarrior]

The first comment I made on this was actually a cut and paste of KOMO news. Its sad to see the pictures and how bad the water is going to be there for a while.

[OlyStretch]

Is that somewhat near sunny side beach? I dove there last Saturday and there was charred wood floating around.

[Dusty2]

Yep, just a couple of miles

[ScubaWarrior]

I am going to check out the area from land and see what or how bad this all got to the water. I love to dive here as this is almost a mini EUP in the south sound in a way of wreaks been told there is like 17 down there, I have found 8 or 9. Ill post something when I get back and see if its as bad as some the pictures I have seen.

[boydski]

We swung by the Steilacoom Marina on our way back from diving another nearby wreck and checked on the condition of the diveable wrecks in that area with the side scan. The fire was pretty much contained to the office area and did not affect any of the well known wrecks or the boats that are still suspended in the old Marina (they are still there).

All of the wrecks that are in Northwest Wreck Dives are still in good shape and divable. We also did not spot any new wrecks under the burned or remaining structure (I thought we might have a few drop from the suspended moorage - but they are all still in pretty good shape). :angry:

[Waynne Fowler]

Is that somewhat near sunny side beach? I dove there last Saturday and there was charred wood floating around.

Yip bro... that piece of charred wood you grabbed on the surface was whats left of it!... It really didn't make that big of a mess for us as divers at sunnyside beach, but I'm sure it doesn't really do good things for the water

[Waynne Fowler]

All of the wrecks that are in Northwest Wreck Dives are still in good shape and divable. We also did not spot any new wrecks under the burned or remaining structure (I thought we might have a few drop from the suspended moorage - but they are all still in pretty good shape). :angry:

That's good news!
I had no idea there was so much there until I got your book and started browsing.

BTW: Ya do know if ya left that dang camera at home I could fit in its case... and the freight would be less! ... just throwin that out there Scott!

[ScubaWarrior]

I drove there on Friday (Oct 23) and the park is closed until further notice. Looked as much as i could see, which wasnt much. hope they open the park again sometime soon.

[spatman]

bringing this thread back from the archives....

anyone dive here lately? still closed?

[Linedog]

Some buddies and I have been tossing around the idea of checking it out sometime.

[DiverBob]

I recentely visitied this site just to have a look around. It looks good and I didn't see any signs that prohibited diving. I would dive it at slack though, the surface water was really moving when I was there.

[DFessler]

Its divable as of now. DB is correct...Slack is good. Last time we had divers there, they were greeted by law enforcement educating them that diving within the pilings was trespassing. So dive outside of the pilings.

[Winter]

12-29-2010 Salter's Point dive: 2 hrs into ebb tide, little current. Looked crystal clear on the surface.
Creepy haunted feeling dive. First time at this site didn't help me relax either.
3-10 ft viz
Saw schools of perch, variety of different stars. No rock fish. One flat fish and 2 sturgeon poachers.
Only visited the North most boat at the end of the pilings. Ropes, bad viz, debris in general and dead fish creeped me out too much to explore further. Dropped down the slope to 55 ft, viz never got better but did see some squid egg cases and a Pycnogonida(sea spider) prob bout an inch in size. The stairs weren't as bad as I thought they would be either.
Bathrooms closed due to vandalism.