POLK CITY, Iowa — A fire Wednesday night raged through the Saylorville Marina destroying at least ten houseboats.

On Thursday owners came out to assess the damage to their boats.

“It was just a house boat that we used pretty much every weekend,” said Mike Veenstra, of Pleasant Hill. “We just heard about it last night and somebody called us and said there was a fire out here and I just came out this morning to see if I could evaluate the damage.”

Before getting to go view his boat Veenstra saw photos of his boat.

“We saw some distant photos, but yeah, I really want to get our own eyes on it,” said Veenstra. “I think they’re still kind of investigating, it’s a total loss. Looks like there’s nothing left really so.”

Billy Youngquist on social media Thursday was remembering his fun times on his family’s boat called the Filthy Oar.

“I started using the boat for inviting friends out all the time we would spend weekends, one week we actually spent almost the entire week out there hanging out, having fun,” said Youngquist. “Helping the people of the lake, we cleaned up Party Cove, and cleaned out logs.”

Youngquist said he hopes his parents will be able to rebuild their boat, as part of the frame was still intact.

There was some concern about a fire hydrant, which was not in working order at the Marina property. Polk City Fire Chief Karla Hogrefe said the non-working hydrant is the property of the Army Corps of Engineers, and is not the responsibility of the Polk City Fire Department.

She said on Wednesday night that she was not aware if that hydrant was in working order.

There has been no word from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office on the cause of the fire.

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