More than half a dozen house boats momentarily caught fire at a popular boating destination on the Utah-Arizona line on Friday, igniting while tourists and jet skiers stood by before the flames were extinguished.
The decks of boats docked at Wahweap Marina on Lake Powell smoldered as black plumes of smoke wafted into the air above the lake and the red rock walls that form its perimeter, video from observers shows.
Robert Wilkes, the owner of Skylite Houseboat Management, said the fire began in the early afternoon and grew for about an hour and a half. Wilkes, a trained firefighter, used a garden hose and worked with park rangers, who he said arrived soon after the boats ignited, to help put out the fire….