A woman lost her home, and the one she was planning to move into next, when two boats went up in flames in Marina del Rey last week.
Michelle Colucci was just returning from work when she saw the flames. The fire quickly spread from a boat she had tied up next to Seashell, her home of 10 years, at the harbor.
Despite fighting hard to save them both, she watched as the new boat, which she had planned to move onto as a new beginning, was hauled away from the harbor on Wednesday, Her old boat had already been towed days earlier, everything inside of it gone.
"Oh my God, that's my boat I was going to buy," Colucci said, watching the wrecked vessel being moved. "I didn't get to say goodbye to this one."
Colucci, who works as a flight attendant, was returning home at around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 11, when she saw flames pouring from the new boat, which she had anchored next to Seashell just days earlier.
"I see an orange flame coming out of the window of the other boat, and I just drop everything and I run down the dock screaming," she said.
Despite her best efforts, the fire quickly grew out of control.
"I think it reached the gas tanks, and that's when it was like a double explosion. I was in disbelief," Colucci said. "It was like a movie."
She says that the harbor master was able to rush onto the boat and save her two cats before both boats were completely destroyed, singing off parts of his eyebrows and eyelashes in the process.
Her insurance won't cover everything she lost in the blaze, which took clothes, appliances and irreplaceable keepsakes from her in seconds. She's now asking for help to rebuild through an online fundraising page, which can be found by searching for the keywords: "Help Michelle Rebuild Home."
Above all, she's grateful that she, her cats and her friend who was watching them that night are all okay.
"I'm lucky I got home when I did," Colucci said.
Los Angeles County Fire Department investigators will keep the newer boat for the new few months as they continue to investigate the cause. Colucci said she thinks it was an electrical issue that sparked in the bathroom.
"It's definitely an electrical fire and we don't exactly know the exact source of it," she said.
She said she's not ready to give up life on the water, hopeful that she can get a new home soon.
"It was not just a boat. It was my home," she said.