Washington D.C.’s District Yacht Club clubhouse destroyed by fire

The clubhouse at the District Yacht Club was destroyed by a blaze after a children's Christmas party

yacht clubhouse on fire
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Two more buildings, along with the clubhouse, were destroyed at the District Yacht Club.

The fire started at around 3.25 a.m. on Monday 19 December, 12 hours after members had thrown a Christmas party for their children. The party wrapped up on Sunday at 4pm.

Firefighters were at the scene and managed to contain the fire, which didn’t reach the 40 boats moored on the Anacostia River. However they had problems extinguishing the blaze because the clubhouse is in an isolated area away from water supplies.

NBC Washington reports Vito Maggiolo, Fire and EMS spokesman, stating: “Despite intense flames and flying embers, crews were able to keep the blaze from spreading to the boats nearby”.

fire spreading

The Washington Post has reported the Club commodore Victor Fenwick saying: “It’s devastating, no doubt, We lost everything as far as the clubhouse is concerned.”.

“We’re all working members,” Fenwick said to the Washington Post, “We cut our own grass.”

The District Yacht Club was established in 1950 and is a non profit organisation that provides affordable boating.

Nobody was harmed in the incident and it’s believed there was no damage to the nearby boats.

The cause of the fire is yet unknown and under investigation.