UPDATE: Blaze Ignites Hopatcong Boathouse

Three firefighters suffering from heat exhaustion were taken to the hospital after flames ripped through a boathouse at 19 Elba Ave. late Tuesday night.

The cause of the inferno was still under investigation, police said.

Firemen began attacking the blaze, which shot about 30 feet into the sky, igniting trees limbs above, at about 10:45 p.m. But the boathouse, with its copper roofs and gutters, trapped much of the heat, stopping flames from reaching the deck of a home less than 50 feet away, a fire official said.

Ivan Dressner wasn't home when boaters called the Hopatcong police department to report the blaze, which was knocked down by about 11:30 p.m. though firefighters continued blasting hot spots well past 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Dressner arrived alongside police and fire officials when the fire had been mostly extinguished. He said the boathouse had stood since 1906 and he had recently undergone renovations.

"What are you going to do?" Dressner said. "Of all the things."

Fire officials mostly attacked the fire from three angles—the front, side and back, where a boat shot water from Lake Hopatcong.

Only the frame of the boathouse stood when the flames had been mostly put out. Pieces of its roof had fallen to the ground. Its walls had been mostly knocked down as firefighters blasted the fire from the outside.

Authorities initially had difficulty finding the structure fire, Hopatcong's third in 2012. Preliminary reports had the fire on Ithanell Road. But officials were able to reach the flames before they spread throughout the woods.

Emergency services from Hopatcong, Stanhope, Jefferson, Netcong and Roxbury responded to the fire.

An earlier version of this story said two firemen were sent to the hospital.