JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – Two people are in the hospital after their boat caught on fire in Jacksonville Beach.
The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department said it happened around 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the Intracoastal Waterway near Beswick Island -- between Beach Boulevard and J. Turner Butler Boulevard.
A neighbor said he was sitting in his living room and heard an explosion. When he came out, he saw the boat on fire.
He said the people on the boat had already managed to escape when he got out to the backyard, but fire crews came to put out the huge flames.
The Coast Guard said two people who were on the boat were taken to Mayo Clinic for minor injuries. The Coast Guard confirms the boat was a 30-foot Cuddy Cabin.
JFRD was at the scene scene putting out the fire earlier Saturday afternoon. The Coast Guard and the Department of Environmental Protection were out talking to neighbors and looking at the boat.
The neighbor News4Jax spoke to said the boat doesn’t belong to anyone he knows in the community. He believes the boaters came from a different area and were just out on the water when the explosion happened.
The Coast Guard said it was a good Samaritan who helped save those two people from the boat fire. The Coast Guard is investigating how the fire started.