MILBRIDGE – A fire of unknown origin destroyed a lobster boat moored off the town dock Sunday afternoon.

According to Milbridge Fire Chief Peter Sawyer, the boat’s owner, Robert Phinney of Milbridge, had been setting traps earlier in the day and had returned to the harbor at about 10:30 a.m. Phinney moored his boat a short distance from the Jordan Pier and went home.

At just after noon firefighters got a call that the boat was on fire. The 32-foot lobster boat was in flames when firefighters arrived. It was too far out from the pier for firefighters to try to put out.

“There wasn’t anything we could do,” Sawyer said. “It’s too bad.”

By the time a crew from the U.S. Coast Guard station in Jonesport reached the scene, the vessel already had sunk. Other fishermen, concerned that the boat might break free and catch other boats on fire, pushed the vessel into deeper water, where it eventually sank.

Reports initially were that someone was in the water at the scene, Sawyer said, but firefighters found no indication that anyone was on the boat when it caught fire and they found no sign of anyone in the water.

Crews did not locate an oil sheen on the water after the boat sank, and Sawyer said it appeared that the gasoline fuel had burned off in the fire. The boat was a total loss, Sawyer said, and Phinney will have to remove it from the harbor.

rhewitt@bangordailynews.net

667-9394