Fire strikes Solomons Island harbor

Restaurants, homes destroyed

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo Courtesy of Capt. Dick Devoe Tug boats from Ship Point Research Park assume firefighting duties at Wednesday’s fire scene in Solomons. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Darwin Weigel Firefighters continue to spray down an apartment building on Solomons Island after a fire destroyed the Lighthouse Inn and Bowen’s Inn on Wednesday. Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Darwin Weigel The Lighthouse Inn on Solomons Island was destroyed by a fire Wednesday that began around 1:30 p.m. Bowen’s Inn was also destroyed as well as apartment buildings next door to the Lighthouse Inn. No injuries were reported.

The fire began at Bowen’s Inn around 1:30 p.m. and spread to the Lighthouse Inn, according to Calvert County Commissioner Jerry Clark (R), who owns a store in Solomons and witnessed the blaze.

Once it caught, Clark said the Lighthouse Inn was ‘‘gone in 15 minutes.” According to Clark, a nearby condominium complex also burned down, and a boat near the Tiki Bar also caught fire.

The area along Solomons harbor near the Lighthouse Inn and Tiki Bar was evacuated because of a gas leak, according to the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office.

Along with volunteer firefighters and paramedics from several Southern Maryland fire departments, the tugboats that escort natural gas tankers to the Cove Point terminal were also called in to turn their water cannons on the blaze.

‘‘If it was not for the gas plant [tugboats], Solomons would be gone,” said Doug Poole, a Lusby resident who witnessed the fire from a marina across the harbor where he was working on a boat. ‘‘The fire departments just couldn’t keep up. The wind was blowing burning pieces all over the place.”

‘‘Nobody got hurt. That’s the important thing,” Clark said.