Damage from an early Saturday morning fire at the Edmonds Marina involving two 50-foot motor yachts and the nearby dock is expected to total more than $600,000, said Leslie Hynes, public information officer for Snohomish County Fire District 1.

Fire investigators now are working to determine how the fire started. “The boat where the fire started sank and will have to be raised. Investigators do not expect to have a cause today,” Hynes said.

As firefighters were putting out hot spots, crews from the Port of Edmonds set up containment booms. The state Department of Ecology is on the scene working to control and prevent environmental damage.

The two-alarm fire was reported by a janitor working in a nearby business just before 4 a.m. “Two boats moored next to each other were engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived and flames were shooting 50-feet in the air,” Hynes said.

No one was aboard the burning yachts, but a man and a woman staying overnight in another yacht moored at the same dock had to be rescued by firefighters. “The burning boats were moored in the first two slips of the dock, and the flames cut off the couple’s access to the shore,” Hynes said,. “They were stuck at the far end of the dock in the smoke. A fire rescue boat brought them to the shore.”

An aid car transported the man and woman to Swedish/Edmonds Hospital, where they were both treated for minor smoke inhalation and released a few hours later.

Firefighters from Lynnwood and Shoreline responded to assist Fire District 1. At the peak of the fire, about 40 firefighters were on the scene. “The docks were very icy and slippery, which was a challenge for firefighters,” Hynes said. “They used an overhead water stream from a ladder truck and firefighting foam to smother the flames.”

It took firefighters about 30 minutes to get the fire under control, but crews continued to battle hot spots for about an hour as the boats smoldered and fuel ignited. One of the boats sank.