A mother who was stranded with her family for nearly two days on a remote island off the coast of Massachusetts after a horrific boat fire has died.
Cici Sullivan passed away Thursday night, her son Chris told WBZ-TV. Sullivan was sleeping on a boat with her husband Patrick and their other son Tyler early Tuesday morning off Cape Cod when the boat caught fire. They escaped with burns and swam to nearby Naushon Island, where they were stranded until Wednesday morning when the Coast Guard rescued them. Their dogs died.
Cici and Tyler Sullivan were rushed to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis. Patrick was taken to the burn center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Patrick and Cici Sullivan.
Chris Sullivan
Chris Sullivan, who was not on the boat, said his mother “went in peace.”
“This hurts more than anything I could have ever imagined,” he wrote on Facebook Friday. “My mom was the best grandmother; she loved her grandkids with all her heart,” Sullivan continued. “She was the most caring, loving, tough woman I have ever known.”
Chris Sullivan said his father was awake and “breathing on his own” at the hospital Friday. His brother Tyler is still recovering from smoke inhalation and third degree burns on his arm.
“My brother saved both of them, he was able to get them off the boat under extremely chaotic circumstances, he doesn’t want to be called a hero, but he is,” Chris wrote in the post.
The Coast Guard and the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s Office both told WBZ-TV they are not investigating the incident. The cause of the boat fire is not known.