Officials have confirmed that 11 people, including two children, were hospitalized on Memorial Day after a boat with 13 passengers exploded in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In a Monday post on X, formerly Twitter, the U.S. Coast Guard Southeast announced that a boat “exploded” at roughly 5:45 p.m. near the New River Triangle in Fort Lauderdale.
A video shared by NBC News shows the boat explosion that sparked a fire and resulted in “significant burns” to multiple passengers.
“For reasons that we don’t know yet, a boat exploded, it tossed people into the water, good Samaritans came over right away and started rescuing them,” Frank Guzman, a Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue spokesman, told reporters. “It’s too soon to know how this happened, we have a fire investigator on scene as well.”
According to NBC 6, the Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue spokesperson told reporters that 11 of the boat’s passengers, including two children, were transported to a local hospital following Monday’s boat explosion.
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“A number of the patients had significant burns and are being transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital where they have a burn unit,” Guzman stated. “A lot of them had burns to much of their body.”
NBC 6 reported that Jackson Memorial Hospital officials confirmed that they received eight adults who were listed in good condition and two children who were listed in fair condition. The outlet noted that one of the individuals was intubated following Monday’s explosion.
According to NBC 6, one of the individuals on the boat has been identified as 32-year-old Antonio Rivero. Rivero claimed that he was with his family on the boat at the time of the explosion. Rivero’s wife and their two children remained in the hospital as of Monday night, according to NBC 6.
“Tried to fuel up the boat, and must have been a gas leak and you know, spark went off and explosion,” Rivero said. “One of the guy’s pants were blown off so it was bad.”
In an update shared on social media, the U.S. Coast Guard Southeast shared a video of salvage operations, saying, “Salvage is being arranged and it’s reported @myfwc is leading the investigation.”
