Multiple people injured in Fort Lauderdale boat explosion, Fire Rescue says
Several people were hospitalized after a boat exploded in the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, according to the Fire Rescue department.
The boat, which was near the New River Triangle sandbar, exploded around 5:45 p.m., said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Third Class Jessica Walker.
Frank Guzman, a Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue spokesman, said 11 people on the boat were injured, including two children.
Emergency dispatcher communications tell of a chaotic scene with several people in the water and people suffering burn injuries. The injured children are around 5 years old, a paramedic told dispatchers on scanner audio reviewed by the Herald.
Witnesses Bret Triano and Marisa Toomsen said they were hanging out at the sandbar when the boat exploded.
'There was this boat trying to leave the sandbar and when they went to start their boat up, it just exploded,' Triano said. 'It was a huge fireball and people were kind of falling off the boat, so we were at the sandbar too, and we just tried to go help out.'
After getting a friend to call 911, the two got in their dinghy and pulled a man who was in his 30s out of the water. He was screaming, and his skin was burned 'pretty badly,' Toomsen said.
'He was saying, 'Save me, please don't let me die,'' Triano said.
The two strangers got the man to shore, where the Coast Guard was waiting. Triano described the boat that exploded as possibly a 40-foot motorboat.
Guzman told reporters at the scene that all 11 people on the boat were taken to Broward Health Medical Center. Some of them were then taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's burn unit in Miami, he said, although he did not have the exact number of patients sent there.
'A lot of them had burns to much of their body,' Guzman said. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, Guzman said he was not aware of any fatalities.
As of Monday night, it was unclear exactly what caused the explosion. Guzman said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue had a fire investigator on scene and that the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission would conduct a joint investigation.
Josh McCarty, who lives in an apartment nearby, said he saw one child and two adults being treated by first responders. The man that he saw appeared to have been burned.
'He was moving around and talking, but it seemed like he had severe burns on his arms because they had it wrapped in gauze and everything,' McCarty said.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
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