Two people were injured Saturday when their boat caught fire on Yale Lake, according to the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies from Cowlitz County and Clark County were dispatched to the lake to help Fire District 7 respond to a report of an occupied boat on fire in the lake, according to a sheriff’s office statement.
The operator of the boat, a 60-year-old Portland man, suffered second-degree burns on his legs and a passenger, a 20-year-old Milwaukie, Ore., woman was also burned. They were both transported to the burn center at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, according to the sheriff’s office.
A third passenger escaped with minor injuries, and a small dog on the boat managed to escape the fire and was recovered, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies suspect a fouled backfire flame arrestor may have been the cause of the fire, which burned the boat to its hull, the sheriff’s office said.
