MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A group on a company retreat had to jump into the water and onto nearby boats after their chartered yacht went up in flames off Miami Beach Friday.
Fire boats responded to the burning vessel, located off Miami Beach Marina near Government Cut, at around noon.
The 70-foot boat was chartered for a company retreat and had many onboard that were traveling from overseas.
After the boat caught fire, the passengers, who came to South Florida from around the world, were told to jump off the boat.
Video shows them jumping off, one by one, to escape the flames.
“I thought they were kidding at first but then I realized this is how we are getting off this boat,” passenger Jamie Maloney.
The passengers had no idea how bad the fire was until after they got off and headed to shore.
“There was the captain of the tourist boat and he is saying jump to my boat now,” a passenger from Serbia said. “We don’t see the whole back of the boat on fire.”
Martin Montano, a good Samaritan that was working on another charter boat nearby, jumped into a tender to help save those on board.
“The only thing that I could think of was go and help these people,” said Montano. So, I show up and I see everybody, they’re all just kind of like, what’s going on?”
No one on board was hurt.
“We are very lucky, our captain was amazing,” Maloney said. “It’s due to him, the captain saved most of our belongings.”
The group later continued their retreat on other boats.