TV set boat on fire, lawsuit charges

An insurance company is suing LG Electronics for a June 4, 2015 at the Winter Hill Yacht Club in Somerville that turned one boat into a total loss and damaged another.

In the suit, filed this week in US District Court in Boston, National Liability and Fire Insurance Co., wants LG to reimburse it the more than $127,000 it paid out to the owners of the two boats, plus damages, plus the costs of investigating the incident, plus attorneys' fees.

The owner of a 32-foot yach moored at the Mystic River facility had purchased a 26-inch LG TV. The company alleges that shortly before 1 a.m. on June 4, faulty manufacturing led to the TV bursting into flames - which quickly spread to the rest of the boat.

Two people - one an off-duty Somerville firefighter who is a yacht-club member - spotted the blaze and fought it with extinguishers and dock hoses until the Somerville Fire Department arrived.

But the fire did enough damage that the boat had to be declared a total loss, the insurance company says, adding it paid the owner $125,000. The company says the fire also did $2,232.06 in damage to a boat in a neighboring slip.