(WSVN) - When you head out on the water, you don’t think about being rescued if something bad happens. But if it does, how quickly you get help actually depends on where you live.
7’s Heather Walker investigates.
More than 5 million boaters head to the Keys every year for a fun day on the water.
But if an accident happens here, you might not get the help you need.
Earlier this month, a boat hit a bridge in Big Pine Key.
Body cameras showed rescuers scrambling to help from land.
Victim: “We need a rescue boat.”
They tried to use a ladder to bring up the eight passengers.
Rescuers: “We are going to do everything we can and it’s probably going to be one by one.”
But some were too injured.
Again, someone called for a boat.
Victim: “I need a rescue boat.”
A young boy with a broken leg and a man with a nearly severed foot were trapped on the sinking boat.
Rescuer: “We only got five to 10 minutes before this thing goes down.”
When a boat finally arrived, it wasn’t a fire rescue boat, It was a towboat.
The TowBoatUS crew was able to rescue the injured right before the boat sank. But the crash is a stark reminder for rescuers about the equipment they desperately need.
R.L. Colina/ Monroe County Fire Deputy Fire Chief: “The need for a fire boat, for a rescue boat, for a boat that can provide aid. For one of these types of responses, it’s known. It’s known and it’s something that, we have been working now for, you know, probably about two years.”
That’s right. In the 120-mile island chain known for boating and water sports, the Monroe County Fire Department has no fire rescue boats.
R.L. Colina: “It’s where we’re situated. It is very different. We don’t have waterways. We don’t have an intercoastal. We have open ocean.”
Monroe County leads the state in boating accidents. Despite that, there are only two fire rescue boats; One in the city of Key West, the other in Ocean Reef; a private community.
Compare that to Miami-Dade, which has six fire rescue boats for about 55 miles of coastline, and Broward, which has four rescue boats for 23 miles.
Those numbers don’t seem right to some families.
June Smith/Heart like Harlie founder: “We’ve spent many years down in the Keys and that day, when I needed help, I didn’t realize you are helpless.”
June Smith lost her 13-year-old daughter, Harlie, in a boating accident off Cudjoe Key in 2017.
June Smith: “If you met her, you were going to love her right away. Very outgoing, super happy, loved the ocean.”
Harlie was in the water when she was hit by a boat. Her mom called 911.
June Smith: “I need help, I need a helicopter, we need medic help, we need it now and all his answer was, ‘Come to shore.'”
Another boater got Harlie to shore but it was too late.
June Smith: “You just know that’s where it’s ending. I don’t want people to be helpless.”
And her efforts are working. The legislature approved $900,000 for three new rescue boats in Key Largo, Marathon and Cudjoe Key.
June says it’s a start.
June Smith: “It’s just, every time I hear an accident, I’m like ‘Ugh. They are fighting. They are fighting to get to shore.”
Which is why June plans to keep fighting to shore up the help needed to save lives on the water.
June started a nonprofit in her daughter’s memory called Heart Like Harlie. All the money goes to funding rescue boats in the Florida Keys.”
Heather Walker, 7News.
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