Fire Destroys 5 Boats at Newport Dunes Resort : Blaze: Flames began in one of the crafts parked in the storage area, officials say. They expect to find out the cause today.

A fire destroyed five pleasure boats at the Newport Dunes Resort Marina storage area Wednesday, sending up a thick plume of black smoke and causing an undetermined amount of damage to the craft.

Newport Beach fire officials said they do not know what caused the blaze, which spread quickly among the five boats parked side by side in the open-air storage area, where about 200 other boats and recreational vehicles are parked.

No injuries were reported.

Division Chief Tom Arnold of the Newport Beach Fire Department said the fire started inside one of the boats, but officials will not know why until today, when the investigation is expected to be completed.

Firefighters were called to the storage area shortly after 6 p.m. when an unidentified witness reported that three boats were engulfed in flames, Arnold said. When the first firetruck arrived five minutes later, two other boats were ablaze. The fire was extinguished within 15 minutes, he said.

Gary Griffin, 40, a book publisher from Corona del Mar, said he owned one of the destroyed boats, a 25-foot Fiberglas Champion. He said the boat did not contain any fuel.

“We just used it a week or a week and a half ago,” Griffin said. “I remember we were going to Catalina when we almost ran out of gas. It just happened to be empty because I didn’t have a chance to refuel it” after the trip.

Griffin estimated his loss at $70,000. “It is terrible,” he said. “I just got done putting a lot of money into it with expensive electrical gear.”

He said he had been parking the boat at the Dunes for about a year and a half.

“It looks like it is wiped out,” he said.

Tim Quinn, general manager of the resort, said he was in his office when he saw the smoke coming from the boats near the edge of the lot. He said that this was the first fire in 10 years at the storage area.