Fishing Boat Crew Rescued After Fire Off North Coast
U.S. Coast Guard crew responds to emergency call of a fishing boat on fire off the coast of Trinidad, California. No injuries were reported. https://t.co/3nlPHjVDx3 pic.twitter.com/mnqxXyg0vY
— ABC News (@ABC) April 19, 2018
A fishing boat and its crew became distressed when a fire broke out off the coast of Humboldt County. The Eureka Times-Standard has more:
The fishing vessel Midori called the Coast Guard just before 9 a.m. and reported that they had a fire on board. The five people on board Midori soon abandoned the burning vessel and got into a life raft.
They received assistance from a second fishing boat, the Pacific Bully, which picked the five mariners up from the life raft. The crew members remained aboard the Pacific Bully an attempted to extinguish the fire with the expectation the boat was salvageable and able to be towed back to port.
The smoke from the burning vessel was visible from U.S. Highway 101 and the Coast Guard dispatched the helicopter to the scene and a 47-foot motor lifeboat from Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay was sent out as well.
“It was a standard operation,” said Commander Brendan Hilleary, the response department head. “When we receive a distress call, we generally respond with an aircraft and a surface vessel and once we get on scene, they are trained to evaluate the nature of distress and whichever asset can provide the most assistance takes the lead.”
There were no reports of injury to either the crew members of the fishing boat or to Coast Guard personnel.
The paper reported that the boat was still at sea after the crew was retrieved.
