{"id":275994,"date":"2026-05-19T01:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/275994\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T01:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:43:10","slug":"family-reunites-with-fort-lauderdale-firefighters-one-year-after-memorial-day-boat-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/275994\/","title":{"rendered":"Family reunites with Fort Lauderdale firefighters one year after Memorial Day boat explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One year after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/news\/man-severely-burned-fort-lauderdale-boat-fire-memorial-day-weekend-died-family\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a devastating boat explosion<\/a> near\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/fort-lauderdale\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Fort Lauderdale<\/a>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/tag\/south-florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">South Florida<\/a> family reunited Monday with the firefighters and paramedics they say saved their lives.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a year of doctors, burn therapy and long trips to Miami,&#8221; Cassandra Rivera said as she reflected on the difficult recovery journey for her two sons, 8-year-old Anthony Rivera and 6-year-old Kash.<\/p>\n<p>The emotional reunion brought Rivera face-to-face with the Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue team that responded to the explosion on Memorial Day weekend last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My little boys made it,&#8221; Rivera said.<\/p>\n<p>Rivera told the rescue team she still remembers the chaos and fear in the moments after the blast.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was told there were too many in the ambulance and you got us through,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Eleven people were rescued from the explosion, including Rivera, her husband and their two sons.<\/p>\n<p>The boat operator, described by Rivera as a family friend, later died from his injuries. Rivera said she believes he was not qualified to captain the boat.<\/p>\n<p>A year later, Rivera still bears visible scars from the explosion, while her sons continue to recover physically and emotionally.<\/p>\n<p>She said doctors have told the family it could take up to two years before the boys fully heal.<\/p>\n<p>In the aftermath of the tragedy, Rivera has written a children&#8217;s book about the ordeal in hopes of helping others process traumatic experiences.<\/p>\n<p>During Monday&#8217;s reunion, Anthony and Kash spent time role-playing as firefighters and even climbed aboard a fire truck with the crew that rescued them.<\/p>\n<p>Rivera also used the anniversary to urge families to prioritize boating safety before heading onto the water.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you know how to fuel a boat? Are there life vests?&#8221; Rivera asked.<\/p>\n<p>Fort Lauderdale Fire Chief Steve Gollan echoed that warning.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you see anything, don&#8217;t go out,&#8221; Gollan said.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities have not released additional details about the circumstances surrounding the explosion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year after a devastating boat explosion near\u00a0Fort Lauderdale, a South Florida family reunited Monday with the firefighters&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[6578,249,251,250],"class_list":["post-275994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-explosion","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275994","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=275994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}