Boat explosion in Prescott, WI leaves several injured
A day at the docks turned dangerous on Saturday as a boat exploded at the Miss Croix Yacht Harbor fuel dock in Prescott, Wisconsin.
"We were sitting on the back of the boat and heard a loud bang," Steve Schiller, a boater from nearby Hastings, Minnesota, told WCCO News. "Next thing you know the boat is smoldering and people are jumping off the back of the boat and within five minutes it turned into big flames."
Dramatic video taken by Schiller and other witnesses show the billowing plumes of smoke at the harbor, which sits exactly where the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers meet. There were hundreds of nearby vessels either docked at nearby marinas or traveling up and down stream.
"You just pray for the people and hope everything is OK because we're all boaters and we all want everyone to be the best," Schiller added.
According to investigators, the blast caused "multiple individuals" to be "ejected" into the river, while others were able to swim to the dock. They were all taken to the hospital, either by ambulance or in their own cars.
As of Saturday evening, police said they were "unsure" of their conditions.
Witnesses also told WCCO News that the situation could have been worse if not for the quick thinking of the owner of Leo's Landing, a nearby marina.
Colton Anderson, whose family has owned the landing for generations, used his boat to push the smoldering vessel away from the docks.
"The other boat down there, it melted the canvas," Anderson recalled to WCCO News. "It was getting ready to burn another boat and then another boat would've burned. That's what we were really trying to save. And the dock was on fire too."
While the cause of the blast is still under investigation, Anderson said it's a critical reminder for boat operators to always turn on the blowers before starting the engine.
"You always have to run your blowers, and no matter what you have to be careful," he stressed. "Blowers take the gas fumes out of the bilge. When you get the blowers on it lets the fumes out. If you have a leaky fuel system or something wrong and you've got a spark and you hit the key and it's hot, you could have ignition source and then bam. Once you're on fire, fiberglass burns really hot."
