We're on the verge of losing a lot of the covered moorage in our area. As a
result of some of the fires you can see at this link:

http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/fire/pho...MarineMenu.htm

the city wants to revise the fire code and require moorage owners to either
1) install high capacity waterlines, standpipes, sprinklers, and controls

or

2) remove the coverings and leave the moorages fully exposed.

I have heard that several property owners have compared the costs and decided
that tearing off the roofing is preferable to investing in sprinklers and
plumbing.

Most of our covered moorages have no firewalls between slips, or even between
every several slips. Once a fire gets going, the heat from one boat is trapped
by the overhead to catch adjoining vessels afire all the soooner. If two or
three get fully engulfed, it's almost impossible to contain with land-based
fire units.

With winter upon us, people will be leaving electric heaters running to prevent
freeze-up. That's a very common cause of fire in these facilities. Think twice
before paying extra for "covered" moorage, unless there's a good sprinkler
system in place.