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 yacht, state of the art, fully engulfed in flames,” said Miami Fire Rescue Lt. Pete Sanchez.
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 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, and crews managed to save other boats from damage.
“There were also other yachts surrounding that yacht and in the water, so firefighters, along with supervisors of the company, were able to remove those boats to safety to minimize the amount of damage that they received,” said Sanchez. “Luckily, those exposures were protected, and no other boats were damaged.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.