At 2309 on 23 January a smoke was seen rising from the Prosser Boathouse, and the alarm was sounded. Alert, Vigilant, and Lakeville-Manhasset Fire Departments responded, and by the time of their arrival the wooden roof of the low portion of the building was ablaze. The fire was out within an hour, and the Nassau County Fire Marshall's investigation began. It appears that the cause was a malfunction in a stereo or something smoldering in a trash can. Damage to the building is severe, but we count ourselves incredibly lucky first of all that no one was injured, and second of all that for all of the equipment in the building for winter storage, we sustained relatively minor damage. 90% of our 60 dinghies were in the building, and only have smoke and soot staining. The Rowing Tank suffered the most severe damage, with one corner severely burned but repairable. If the dinghies had caught fire the loss would have been horrible. The waterfront staff did an incredible job of emptying the building today, and midshipmen from all waterfront programs turned to this afternoon to start scrubbing the soot from the dinghy fleet.
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