COCOA BEACH, Fla. -- A boat caught fire Thursday morning on the Banana River in Brevard County and it was still burning hours later. The 40-foot fishing boat, named "Major Issues," caught fire while it was docked at the Sunset Grill in Cocoa Beach.

The fire sent flames and smoke so high into the air, the fire could be seen as far away as Cape Canaveral and Cocoa. Fortunately, no one was on the boat at the time of the fire.

The owner, Bill Brennan, was preparing the $300,000 boat for a birthday fishing trip. He had started a generator when smoke started pouring out.

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Brennan told Eyewitness News that he filled up the tanks Wednesday with 400 gallons of diesel fuel.

The Coast Guard was on the scene Thursday, but there were no boats with the capability of spraying down the boat to put the fire out.

The owner said he was washing it down, preparing for a birthday fishing trip. He turned his head for a second, looked back and saw the boat billowing with smoke. He tried to put it out himself with a hose, but then it burst into flames.

Fortunately, the boat broke free from the dock and floated out into the Banana River where it continued to burn. At one point, it ran into a boating marker and burned it.

The fire drew so much attention that Highway 520 started backing up and police had to clear the traffic.

"I think there is a lot of concern when a boat is free. It's free-style right now," witness Richard Winchester said.

When the boat was still next to the dock, the Cocoa Beach Fire Department tried spraying it down, but eventually it got out of their reach. It took almost an hour before a Coast Guard boat and a small citizen's patrol boat with a water hose could get there, but even then they were having problems spraying down the boat.

The incident had some residents questioning the safety of all boaters.

"It's really not boat-friendly here and it's got one of the best waterways on the east coast, probably in the country," Winchester said.

Cocoa Beach's deputy fire chief says it would cost the city about $70,000 to buy a fire boat.

"I can't say that I wouldn't like to have a fire boat, but right now budgets are tight all around so we don't have one," Deputy Fire Chief G.C. Wine said.

It will be up to a salvage crews to pull what's left of the boat out of the water and then investigators will try to figure out what caused the fire.

No one was injured during the incident.