Magnolia Springs FD Responds Twice to Vessel Leaking Fuel Into Fish River
By: Rick McCann
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
August 19, 2026
MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, Ala. Firefighters from the Magnolia Springs Volunteer Fire Department have been called out twice in recent days to help prevent fuel from leaking into the Fish River from an older vessel called The Cap’n Dirt.
A boat which was not properly docked has been listing and sits up against the shore of the owner’s property just north of the U.S. Highway 98 Fish River Bridge.
The boat, which has been tied up for several weeks while the owner decides how to recover the vessel, is attracting attention from area residents and has been visited by the Coast Guard and Emergency Management officials who have spoken with the owner.
According to a Magnolia Springs Fire Department Facebook post, volunteer firefighters have placed a boom around the vessel near Fish River Acres Circle to try to prevent any fuel from leaking into the area water.
The Magnolia Volunteer Fire Department returned to the boat Monday evening after reports of an oil sheen and placed more boom around the vessel. Crews returned Tuesday and removed around 55 gallons of residual fuel and oil from the boat and the waterway.
This scenario plays out often every year in our area and there’s no single agency that has oversight to remove abandoned vessels, so they sometimes sit for months and years where their owners have left them.
For now, this boat sits dead in the water, but authorities could salvage the vessel and bill the owner if it isn’t moved within a given timeframe.
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