For some, a boat is just a getaway. For others, it’s a life.

Gerry Gross, 75, lived primarily on his power boat, “It’s 5 o’clock Somewhere,” for over a decade while it was moored in Gig Harbor.

After a fire on Bujacich Dock off of Harborview Drive broke out early Jan. 25, all he had left were the few pieces of clothing he threw on before escaping.

Pierce County Fire Marshal Ken Rice told The News Tribune Jan. 30 that they’ve identified a piece of heating equipment — a heater/boiler unit, not an electric space heater — on one of the damaged boats that seems connected to the fire, but they won’t know for sure until the insurance companies bring in private fire investigators to do more forensic analysis of the site and whatever they want to examine in a laboratory.

Typically, the fire marshal does an initial investigation and then waits until all of the interested parties’ investigators have a chance to go to the scene and do their own forensic analysis. In this case, “interested parties” include the people whose vessels were damaged and equipment manufacturers. Then, everyone will meet to determine the next steps and do a joint examination of the site of the fire.

The whole process can take as long as six months to a year, depending on how busy everyone’s schedules are, Rice said.

U.S. Coast Guard Chief Ayla Hudson also told The News Tribune that the Coast Guard believes the fire was connected to a heater.

Gross called 911 on Jan. 25 when his smoke alarm went off and he saw flames outside the boat.

“And that’s when all hell broke loose,” Gross said.

Gross had a professionally-installed Webasto DBW 2010 Engine Heater on his boat. It was diesel-fueled and worked like a hot water boiler, pumping hot water throughout the boat to heat the interior. It released exhaust outside the boat. He doesn’t have any space heaters inside the boat, except for an oil radiator, he said. The engine heater never had any problems, and he kept his boat well-maintained, he told The News Tribune.

Kristina LaVair, 29, also lost her sailboat that day. After keeping her boat in Anacortes for the last two years, she was moving it to Tacoma so she’d no longer have to travel so far between where she kept her boat and where she works.

Like Gross, LaVair kept nearly all of her belongings on her boat, which she affectionately called “Salty (expletive)” because of its seemingly temperamental attitude while she was sailing it. She didn’t live on it full-time, but spent summers and a few winters on it. It was everything she needed, after she “jumped into boat life” around age 25, she said. LaVair said she worked three jobs to save up enough money to buy that boat, and she knew every crevice. She fixed the engine, painted the decks, and oiled the wood.

“That was my safe space,” LaVair said. “. . . I don’t need a lot in life and that was enough for me.”

GoFundMe pages for Gross and LaVair are collecting donations online to support them. Both boat owners told The News Tribune they’re extremely grateful for the community support.

LaVair said she has family to stay with, but working through insurance issues has been very difficult. She’s currently facing a $9,000 cost to get her boat out of the water and disposed of.

Gross said a friend is allowing him to stay on his sailboat temporarily while he finds a place to stay.

Robert Wiles and Angie Hodgeboom, another Gig Harbor resident, are both friends of Gerry Gross and ran down to the dock when they saw flames on Saturday. Hodgeboom’s husband also owns two commercial fishing boats at Bujacich Dock that mostly escaped the fire except for three broken windows.

Wiles remembers a fire in 2005 that devoured the Harboview Marina and destroyed 48 boats, according to the state Department of Ecology. He said the fire on Jan. 25 could have been a lot worse.

“It could have caught the whole dock on fire,” he said.

While he doesn’t have a boat, he owns half of Bujacich Dock, which he said his grandfather built with his dad in the 1940s. Jack Bujacich owns the other half. In peak season, the dock can have up to 25 boats tied up to it, he said.

Wiles and Hodgeboom both mentioned their concern in separate phone calls with The News Tribune that Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One doesn’t have its own fire boat.

Asked why that is, Gig Harbor Fire spokesperson Tom Wescott said it’s because the department has more pressing needs to address in their limited budget.

Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One has an agreement with West Pierce Fire & Rescue to use their fire boat when needed, for a fee. They also have a similar agreement with the Tacoma Fire Department. West Pierce Fire provided assistance with their fire boat on Jan. 25, The News Tribune reported.

Wescott said it could take around 10 to 20 minutes for those resources to arrive. But even if Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One had its own fire boat, the boat wouldn’t necessarily be the first to arrive on-scene, he said. There would be a delay while crews get to the boat, prepare it for action, untie it and move it to the scene, he said. The other crews on the dock would still be faster. What the boat would provide is large volumes of water and the ability to attack the fire from another angle, he said.

Wescott told The News Tribune that the department does a full “marina drill” at least once or twice a year, practicing how to respond to a marina fire. They make it as real as possible, with firefighters actually deploying equipment and shooting water from hoses, according to Wescott.

At the Gig Harbor City Council meeting on Jan. 27, council member Reid Ekberg praised the first responders who put out the fire.

“The response that Gig Harbor Fire and all our first responders brought down there was just outstanding,” Ekberg said at the meeting.