One person died after a shuttle boat carrying 50 people to a casino boat off Florida’s gulf coast caught fire on Sunday afternoon, forcing passengers to jump overboard to escape the fast-moving flames, the authorities said.
Flames consumed the boat around 4 p.m., but emergency workers had to wade into the frigid waters about 25 miles northwest of Tampa, Fla., to rescue about 15 people who had not made it ashore, the police said.
On Monday, Chief Gerard DeCanio of the Port Richey Police Department said that one passenger, a 42-year-old woman, had died. Her name and cause of death had not yet been released.
The woman had been taken to Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point in critical condition on Sunday and died at 10:42 p.m., the hospital spokesman, Kurt Conover, said on Monday. Beth Fifer, an assistant to the chief executive officer of the Tropical Breeze Casino, said on Monday that she had spoken to the family of the deceased woman but had no further information.
The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the fire, Michael De Nyse, a Coast Guard spokesman, said in an interview on Monday.
About a dozen other people were treated for exposure, anxiety and other minor injuries, Chief DeCanio said on Sunday.
Continue reading the main story| < Prev | Next > |
|---|