Three boats destroyed at Hillarys

The arson squad is investigating a fire at Hillarys Boat Harbour which destroyed three pleasure craft and damaged another.

A police spokesman said the blaze broke out on a boat on C Jetty about 3.15am and quickly spread to nearby vessels, causing more than $1.5 million.

Harbour master Chris St Roas confirmed four boats were damaged.

He said the cause of the fire was not yet known.

Boat owners Ron Boucher and sister Corene Suparta said they were devastated to see the family vessel completely destroyed.

Ms Suparta said her father had put a lot of work into fixing up the boat since he bought it five years ago.

It was insured and worth about $200,000.

"My dad's away at the moment, so when he finds out he'll be pretty upset," she said.

They said the boat contained a lot of memories from the family's trips to Rottnest.

"I don't know what we'll do this Christmas," Ms Suparta said.

Mr Boucher said when he saw the wreckage 'it was just like out of a movie, it was surreal'.

Witness David Bailey, who was on a boat on a neighbouring jetty, said smoke was seen by a man from the car park on Southside Drive.

“He saw smoke ... he and a security guard ran down to this boat that was smoking which a few minutes later blew up and was sending flames 10 to 20 metres into the air," Mr Bailey said. "Very quickly the fire brigade were on the scene.

“The first two people to find the fire were running up and down the jetty yelling ‘fire’. They were running up and down the jetty banging on boats to see if anyone was sleeping on board."

Mr Bailey said three boats were razed to the waterline.

“They are expensive boats, expensive pleasure craft," he said.

“I can’t say enough for the firies who came in with breathing apparatus and everything and they got onto it pretty quickly and probably saved a whole lot of boats."

Firefighters are mopping up. Water police and members of the arson squad are also at the scene. Police divers are also on their way.