MIAMI (WSVN) – Firefighters battled a fierce blaze in Miami when a brand-new yacht went up in flames.
More than 32 City of Miami Fire Rescue units and 100 firefighters responded to the scene at the Merrill-Stevens Yachts, a shipyard located near Northwest 12th Avenue and 11th Street, next to the Miami River, at around 11:15 a.m., Sunday.
Video posted on social media showed thick billowing smoke coming from the boat house.
“They found an 82-foot vessel, state of the art, fully engulfed in flames,” said Miami Fire Rescue Lt. Pete Sanchez.
Officials said crews managed to save other boats from damage.
“There were also other yachts surrounding that yacht. Firefighters were able to unhook them, ’cause they were obviously on the water,” said Sanchez. “They were able to unhook them and pull them out onto the canal way there, making sure that they weren’t affected, because this is a covered structure where the boats are in water, and there was a lot of smoke, so you can have smoke damage and even flame damage, ’cause the flames were very intense.”
Crews were seen hosing down the Vision F2 yacht for almost two hours.
The state-of-the-art vessel is made of materials that, fire officials said, ignited more fumes, and that made the blaze hard to control.
“And there was the fire boat and the City of Miami Hazardous Materials [Response] Team, which conducted a foam operation to be able to extinguish this blaze,” said Sanchez. “We did find some hot spots, because this is a state-of-the-art yacht with materials that are difficult to extinguish. It also has solar-powered panels on the top and a lot of electrical batteries as well.”
Thankfully, no one was on board the yacht when the fire started.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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