“There’s dozens of boats and yachts and a lot of money, and people are living on some of these vessels as well,” Dewberry said.
One vessel was well alight when authorities arrived at the marina and four people had managed to escape the flames. NSW Ambulance treated a woman for smoke inhalation before she was taken to hospital in a stable condition.
Boat owner Andrew Carr said he was awoken by police evacuating people at about 4am.
“Loud bang at the door, which is unusual when you’re sleeping in your boat,” he told Nine News.
“I got up, there’s a police officer at the door, he said: ‘Could you get off the boat there’s been a fire on the dock’.
“They went through every boat, he knocked on everyone’s door.”
Carr recalled seeing clouds of toxic smoke as the fire on one boat quickly jumped to others.
“And burnt really, really quickly, I was really surprised. They couldn’t put them out,” Carr said.
Vision from the scene shows one of the charred boats sinking.
It remains unknown what sparked the blaze but it is not currently being treated as suspicious.
Port Authority workers examining the scene.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
The Spit Marina site is operated by d’Albora and also houses a number of marine services, boat hire and brokerage services as well as a boat club and restaurants.
It is described as “one of Sydney Harbour’s most prestigious boating precincts” with “dedicated superyacht berths”.
David Joyce, d’Albora’s head of marketing, said normal marina operations are expected to resume on Friday afternoon.
“Our priority is ensuring safety on site, supporting authorities with their investigation and clean-up, and restoring safe operations as soon as possible.
“We have deployed significant resources to the site to assist with these tasks and minimise the disruption to our customers,” he said.
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