MIAMI (WSVN) – A charter boat explosion near the Haulover Sandbar in Northeast Miami-Dade sent nearly a dozen people to the hospital in Mother\u2019s Day weekend.<\/p>\n
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units responded to the scene of the blast on board the Nauti Nabors, just after 12:45 p.m. on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just got a possible boat explosion at the fuel dock. Multiple people in the water,\u201d said a first responder in radio transmissions.<\/p>\n
Witnesses on the scene described what they saw.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a pretty bad scene. It was an explosion in the bilge of the boat,\u201d said Captain Jack.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy buddy, who\u2019s a fisherman, was going by, and he said he just heard a boom. You know, it\u2019s a real quick thing, \u2019cause all of that ignites right at once,\u201d said witness Patrick Lee. \u201cWhen we looked back out, we saw three people flying off the boat and a puff of smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n
Video footage shows MDFR crews helping a passenger climb aboard their fire boat and carrying others away on stretchers before rushing them back to shore. <\/p>\n
Lee, who has a commercial boat at the dock, said the explosion happened just moments after the group boarded the vessel and was so powerful that it threw people into the water. He believes it could have been avoided.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis people got on board, and he turned the key and didn\u2019t open the hatches and didn\u2019t turn on the blowers, and he blew people out of the boat,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was out there at anchor waiting for his shuttle, waiting for his group of people. People got on. We saw them get on because we had just unloaded a group of people to a boat next door. And man, it wasn\u2019t two minutes later, the explosion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over 25 MDFR units, along with Ocean Rescue and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, rushed to the scene, where they found 15 patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a great way to start the summer, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d said Captain Jack. <\/p>\n
Due to the severity of the number of people needing treatment and the need for additional resources, the call was upgraded to a Level 2 mass casualty incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery, very chaotic, \u2019cause they were trying to figure out if people were still in the water and so on. The lucky thing, it wasn\u2019t far enough away that they couldn\u2019t get to land,\u201d said witness Kirk Sue.<\/p>\n
\u201cInjuries were from burn injuries to some traumatic injuries as well,\u201d said MDFR Battalion Chief Juan Arias.<\/p>\n
Multiple ambulances pulled into Ryder Trauma Center as 11 people were rushed in for treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just saw a lot of them with burns all over them,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n
At Haulover Marina, MDFR the U.S. Coast Guard, and FWC were at the scene as they worked to piece together what occurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obvious he didn\u2019t do what procedures are called for, and many rookie captains don\u2019t,\u201d said Lee. <\/p>\n
Just before 6 p.m. on Saturday, the boat was towed away.<\/p>\n
FWC said this is an active investigation.<\/p>\n
Officials have not yet said what the update is for those people who were taken to the hospital. <\/p>\n