MIAMI (WSVN) - A survivor of a charter boat explosion that sent nearly a dozen people to the hospital on Mother’s Day Weekend near the Haulover Sandbar and her relative are speaking out on the horrifying experience.
Ruth Gutierrez, who survived the explosion aboard the Nauti Neighbors, said she was on board for a friend’s birthday party and said she could smell gasoline just before the blast.
Her daughter, Samantha Depena, stood next to her and translated her mother’s thoughts.
“They went to a birthday party at the boat,” said Depena, “She doesn’t know because the only thing that she remembered was that they were singing Happy Birthday, and she said about the smell, and a couple of minutes after, everything exploded.”
Gutierrez suffered burns to her arm, back, and hair and was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital with other survivors.
Video footage shows Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews helping a passenger climb aboard their fire boat. Another angle shows victims being carried away on stretchers.
Depena said that she was in Port St. Lucie when one of her mother’s friends told her what happened.
“And knowing I couldn’t do anything for her, it was, it was bad,” she said.
Another survivor of the boat explosion, Paola Scott, was also hospitalized in the blast.
Paola’s husband, Jim, shared his recollection of the incident.
“I got a call on Saturday evening about 6, 6:30, because I was wondering, ‘Where in the heck is she at? She’d have been back home by now,” said Jim.
Paola told him she was at the hospital and that the police were there.
“Well, she has burns over 50 percent of her body, and the last I heard from her was that they were giving her physical therapy,” he said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is now working to find out the cause of the explosion.
The victims recovering at Jackson Memorial Hospital also said that they were lucky to be alive.
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