The floathouse owned by the late Ronald Phillips turned on its side at the Inner Harbor on Nov. 14 and later was taken apart for salvage of the metal and disposal of the rest of the structure.
A vacant floathouse moored behind the Marine Bar at the Inner Harbor keeled over Nov. 14, around noon. An old boat tied up nearby also partially sank. Both belonged to an elderly resident who died several weeks earlier.
A private contractor has been hired to handle cleanup of the wreckage.
Tori Peterson, who lives near the floathouse, witnessed it turning over. She said it had been tilting more and more to one side for sometime before going down at high tide. "It just rolled right over and fell on its side," she said. As a result, she said the boat tied up close to the structure took on water and sank.
Lynn Allen, a bartender at Rayme's Bar, confirmed that the floathouse and boat belonged to the estate of the late Ronald Phillips, who died several weeks earlier at age 93 from complications of a broken hip after being medevaced to a Seattle hospital. She said Phillips hadn't lived in the floathouse for years, and instead had been living in an apartment near the harbor.
Allen said the floathouse had been listing to one side for several weeks. "You can see where it's rusted," she said.
Rolland Wimberley, owner of the Marine Bar, also said the structure had been in "questionable" shape for sometime.
According to Peterson, there was a small fire on the floathouse in August 2021.
Allen had been planning to go through Phillips' belongings at the place for his family on the coming weekend when Wimberley alerted her to the floathouse's demise. She oversaw salvage of the few recoverable items.
According to Dave Miller, of Dave's Welding and Repair, Leif Phillips, son of the deceased owner, arrived in town on Wednesday, Nov. 15, and contracted Miller's company to clear out the wreckage.
Miller described how the house's underside had been constructed with flotation tubing, two-by-fours and foam insulation, enabling it to stay afloat, but it hadn't been painted to protect the tubing from salt water. "It's crazy how much it rusted out," he said. "It's surprising what salt water will do to a piece of raw steel that's never been painted."
The job became more challenging for the cleanup crew the following morning on Nov. 16, according to Miller. "Last night on the tide, the house broke free from the frame and slid down into the water," he said. "There's a bunch of Styrofoam and stuff, but that's what the guys are fishing out of the water down there now."
Miller said the work proceeded quickly amid concerns of pollution of the harbor from remaining debris.
"That's what we're trying to contain," said Ryan Miller, crew member and son of Dave Miller. "That's our biggest concern."
Dave Miller added, "He (Phillips) had some old outboards and a couple of chainsaws and stuff ... that's the first thing we did was get rid of the little bit of gas he had and some propane tanks."
After collecting the debris, "we'll just lift everything off with a boom truck and stick it in a dump truck," he said.
Any steel will be salvaged for scrap, and the rest will go to the borough waste transfer site.
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