Divers postpone search for couple missing in marina fire
»Play Video
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Faced with murky conditions and a dangerous mass of tangled underwater debris, divers delayed searching for the bodies of a couple who are feared dead after their boat sank early Friday in massive marina fire.
The couple, identified as 43-year-old Jim Langei and 33-year-old Sterling Taylor, have been missing ever since flames swept through a covered boathouse at the Port of Bellingham, destroying several vessels moored there.
Police Sgt. Shawn Aiumu said there was a call from the boat on which the two lived when the fire broke out. It's believed the couple was trapped aboard the vessel and they were unable to escape.
Allan Troupin, who owns a 40-foot boat that was destroyed in the fire, said he often socialized with the missing couple and that they were good people.
"Good friends of ours - delightful, life-of-the-party people," he said. "Super friendly. Super out-going."
Jim Langei is a loan officer, and his wife Sterling Taylor runs the coffee shop at the marina pier - a popular stop for many heading out on the water. She had planned to reopen the stand on Monday after being closed for the winter.
Friends left well wishes outside the shop, but fear for the worst.
"This is just really a great loss," said one friend.
Officials said they are planning to bring in a crane to lift the charred and tangled masses of debris from the water - all that remains of the covered boathouse and the vessels that once were moored there.
After that is completed, then divers can search for the bodies of the missing couple.
"This is going to be a long-term cleanup here," said Dick Walker of the state Department of Ecology. "It will probably go on for several days."
The couple, identified as 43-year-old Jim Langei and 33-year-old Sterling Taylor, have been missing ever since flames swept through a covered boathouse at the Port of Bellingham, destroying several vessels moored there.
Police Sgt. Shawn Aiumu said there was a call from the boat on which the two lived when the fire broke out. It's believed the couple was trapped aboard the vessel and they were unable to escape.
Allan Troupin, who owns a 40-foot boat that was destroyed in the fire, said he often socialized with the missing couple and that they were good people.
"Good friends of ours - delightful, life-of-the-party people," he said. "Super friendly. Super out-going."
Jim Langei is a loan officer, and his wife Sterling Taylor runs the coffee shop at the marina pier - a popular stop for many heading out on the water. She had planned to reopen the stand on Monday after being closed for the winter.
Friends left well wishes outside the shop, but fear for the worst.
"This is just really a great loss," said one friend.
Officials said they are planning to bring in a crane to lift the charred and tangled masses of debris from the water - all that remains of the covered boathouse and the vessels that once were moored there.
After that is completed, then divers can search for the bodies of the missing couple.
"This is going to be a long-term cleanup here," said Dick Walker of the state Department of Ecology. "It will probably go on for several days."
