AVENTURA, FLA. (WSVN) - - Cleanup crews in Aventura spent part of Labor Day weekend cleaning up one day after a 75-foot yacht ignited and burst into flames, causing concern among nearby residents and sending a man to the hospital.
7News cameras captured crews and police officers back at the wreckage in the area of 1520 Island Blvd., Saturday afternoon.
Crews did their best to soak up any excess fuel floating around the boat’s remains.
First responders said the blaze sparked just before 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
Area resident Brian Morales was one of many residents who came home to witness the burning vessel.
“I was like, ‘What the hell is going on,’ and then I saw the smoke,” he said, “and then we got pretty close with my daughter, and you can feel the heat from all the fire, and then, as time went on, it got bigger and bigger.”
The victim on board suffered severe burns and was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center. As of Saturday night, his condition is unknown.
The fire made for some scary moments for Aventura resident Barbie Gregory, who was having dinner in North Miami Beach when she saw the flames.
“My daughter, who’s in Tennessee, sends me a video and says, ‘Mom, what’s going on?’ It says there’s a big fire in Aventura.’”
Gregory began to record the fire on video, and she realized it was burning just feet from her home.
“So I see in social media, looking at pictures, and I recognized our apartment complex. Scared me to death,” she said. “I started calling neighbors, trying to figure out what in the world was going on.”
Firefighters spent the bulk of the night using water and foam to extinguish the flames.
Nearby residents breathed a sigh of relief that their homes were not affected.
“We had no idea what we were going to come home to find, if our place was going to be stable or not,” she said. “I still feel horrible for people and their loss tonight. It’s obviously tragic, but it is a relief that our complex was not on fire; that was my first original thought.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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