The old Lake Country sailboat was destroyed by fire early this morning, April 1.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Steve Windsor
April 01, 2021 - 7:14 AM
A piece of Lake Country history went up in flames overnight.
The old blue sailboat, used for advertising for Holiday Park Resort along Highway 97 at Commonwealth Road through Lake Country, was destroyed early this morning, April 1.
Lake Country fire chief Steve Windsor said the boat was fully involved by the time firefighters arrived shortly after 1:30 a.m.
READ MORE: The Lake Country 'sailboat' isn't just roadside marketing, it's 120 years of history
There were two Lake Country fire engines and a tender truck on scene, and the Kelowna Fire Department also supplied an engine and another tender as there is no water supply in that area, he said.
"We had to bring in an excavator to pull it apart because it had collapsed in on itself and it's a pretty big wood boat so it was fully destroyed," he said.
The cause is still under investigation, he said.
Most will know the old boat for its advertising but it actually has a long history in the community as a tugboat from the 1940s that sunk in Okanagan Lake before it was finally resurrected.
— This story was updated at 9:43 a.m. Thursday, April 1, 2021 to include new information from Lake Country Fire Department.
— This story was corrected April 20, 2021 to say the boat was built in the 1940s, not in 1903.
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