MONROE COUNTY, Fla. (WSVN) — A woman has gone missing and was presumed dead by the local sheriff’s office after a yacht caught fire at a marina on Stock Island, an unincorporated community just before Key West.
The 70-foot Viking yacht was fully engulfed in flames when Monroe County Fire Rescue crews arrived at the scene at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. The firefighters battled the intense blaze for approximately three hours in an attempt to contain and extinguish it.
Officials said in the aftermath of the blaze, 51-year-old Linda Vella from St. Petersburg went missing. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the woman is presumed dead following the incident.
Emergency response teams, including the Sheriff’s Office Dive Team and TowBoat U.S. crews, are still working to locate Linda.
The fire also resulted in injuries to her husband, 58-year-old Michael Kenneth Robson and 21-year-old son Anthony Joseph Vella. They were both airlifted to a hospital in Miami for medical treatment; their condition is unknown.
Another family of four was present on the yacht but fortunately managed to escape uninjured.
The incident remains under investigation by both the state Fire Marshal’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Detectives.
Copyright 2023 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.