A docked boat erupted in flames at a Bronx marina in Throggs Neck on Saturday night, sending orange flames and black smoke over the waterfront before fire crews knocked down the blaze. FDNY crews responded at around 8:15 p.m. to 140 Reynolds Ave., the address of Hammond Cove Marina, where the fire had already engulfed the vessel.
Footage captured on the Citizen app showed orange flames shooting from the boat as black smoke billowed above the marina, according to News 12 Bronx. Fire officials told the outlet that crews extinguished the blaze, though the cause of the fire was not immediately known.
A Marina With a Complicated Past
The waterfront property at 140 Reynolds Ave sits at the foot of the Throggs Neck Bridge in Locust Point and operates as Hammond Cove Marina, the only NYC Parks-owned marina facility in the Bronx, as reported by Bronx Times. In March 2023, NYC Parks awarded the site's concession contract to Buster's Bronx Marine Service following a $5 million capital improvement pledge, replacing longtime operator Icehouse Café, per the same outlet.
The property has drawn police attention before. In September 2016, when the site was known as Locust Point Marina, police investigated a homicide there after a man's shot body was found in a garbage bag inside a wooden crate, according to CBS News. Saturday's fire is an entirely separate incident, with no indication in current reporting that it involved any criminal activity.
What Sparked the Blaze Remains Unclear
Marine fires present distinct hazards because fuel systems are often the culprit. Federal Coast Guard accident data show that 68 percent of 1,175 recreational vessel fire or explosion incidents with known causes between 2015 and 2019 were fuel-related, according to the Federal Register. Nationally, the U.S. Coast Guard recorded 3,887 recreational boating incidents in 2024 that caused $88 million in property damage, with machinery failure ranking among the top contributing factors, per the National Safe Boating Council.
Federal safety rules adopted in April 2022 require disposable fire extinguishers on recreational motorboats to carry a maximum 12-year expiration date from manufacture, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Whether fuel, electrical failure, or another cause sparked Saturday's fire has not been determined, and it remains unclear whether any nearby docked vessels or marina infrastructure were damaged.
Part of a Busier Season on the Water
Saturday's fire adds to a string of recent marine emergencies across the East Bronx waterfront. In May, a late-night boatyard fire on City Island drew 21 FDNY units and 79 fire and EMS personnel as crews battled heavy smoke drifting over the shoreline. In June 2025, a charter-boat fire off City Island injured 22 people and led to criminal charges against the boat's captain for reckless endangerment and operating while intoxicated, marking one of the largest marine emergency responses in the East Bronx in recent years.
Throggs Neck itself has seen a rash of late-night blazes this summer, including two residential fires and a midnight incident in July when multiple vehicles burned inside St. Raymond's Old Cemetery, with firefighters working nearly two hours to contain those flames. Water rescues and vessel fires in the area typically fall under the jurisdiction of FDNY Marine Company 4, stationed at Fort Totten in Queens, which covers more than 40 square miles of water stretching from the East and Harlem Rivers to Execution Rocks in Long Island Sound. It was not specified in current reporting whether Marine 4 was dispatched to Saturday's fire at Hammond Cove Marina.
