{"id":266292,"date":"2026-05-11T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/266292\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T06:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:00:13","slug":"woman-on-board-boat-says-she-smelled-gas-before-explosion-at-haulover-beach-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/266292\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman on board boat says she smelled gas before explosion at Haulover Beach \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

A day after a boat explosion at Haulover Beach <\/a>sent 11 people to the hospital, a woman who was on board the boat described what she experienced.<\/p>\n

According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, over 25 units, alongside Ocean Rescue, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the U.S. Coast Guard, responded to reports of a possible boat explosion near the Haulover Sandbar on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Ruth Gutierrez told NBC6 on Sunday that she was aboard the boat along with 12 others.<\/p>\n

She said it was supposed to be a birthday celebration out on the water, but it quickly turned into a nightmare that left her with physical and mental wounds.<\/p>\n

Before the boat exploded, Gutierrez said she smelled a strong gasoline odor.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t cook on board; we brought everything already cooked,” she said in Spanish. “Everything was already prepared, so we didn’t have to use anything from that boat.”<\/p>\n

Minutes later, there was an explosion.<\/p>\n

“I threw myself into the water without thinking twice, because my intention was to die by drowning rather than by burning,” she said.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez suffered burns to her right arm, but told NBC6 that her whole body is in pain.<\/p>\n

So far, she\u2019s the only one who has been released from the hospital.<\/p>\n

She also said a 15-year-old was on board and had to undergo surgery on his leg.<\/p>\n

“I was the one who got lucky, because everyone else is currently in intensive care, suffering from ruptures, burns of varying degrees, and facial burns,” she said.<\/p>\n

NBC6 learned that the boat involved in the incident is a Sea Ray Express Cruiser, and, according to the manufacturer, it can legally hold 10-12 people.<\/p>\n

Investigators have not confirmed the official cause of the explosion as the investigation remains active.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day after a boat explosion at Haulover Beach sent 11 people to the hospital, a woman who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124,373],"class_list":["post-266292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-dade-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}