Flames shot 12 feet above the water of the Tennessee River on Wednesday evening, burning out the interior of a large boat that a Signal Mountain man called home.
According to neighbors, Mike Hoseman has lived in the permanently docked Chattanooga Dinner Star on Suck Creek Road for more than three years. Neighbors first noticed the boat was burning while building a deck on a home about 200 yards away.
“One of the guys thought he heard a boom,” Jerry Thomas said. “A couple of us ran over to make sure everything was OK.”
They heard another boom as they ran to the boat to make sure animals and a woman they had seen inside the boat earlier were safe, but “smoke was so bad, you couldn’t get in,” Thomas said.
The men later located the woman in a nearby truck. They believe two kittens in the boat escaped, but were unsure of the fate of a Rottweiler.