'It's gonna blow': Video captures dramatic moment family rescues 2 from boat engulfed in flames

Monday, July 31, 2023
'It's gonna blow': Video captures rescue from fire-engulfed boat
A dramatic water rescue was caught on video. Two people jumped from a boat on fire in West Grand Traverse Bay.

Video captured the dramatic moment a family helped save two people as their boat was engulfed in flames in Michigan.

Two people were stuck on board a 21-foot Baja as it went up in flames on West Grand Traverse Bay.

"It's too late, guys," one person can be heard saying in the video. "It's too late. Get off the boat. It's gonna blow."

As the fire intensified, the pair was forced to make a dire decision: jump overboard. They were lucky that Nathan Greenwood and his wife were boating nearby and were able to come to the rescue.

"I knew very quickly that if they did not get off the boat, they were either going to pass out from the inhalation of the smoke, the heat, or it would end up eventually exploding," Nathan said. "It's really fortunate, because within three seconds of them jumping off of the boat, it exploded."

That fire-engulfed boat soon sunk to the bottom of the bay.

What happened in Michigan echoed some of the other recent trouble on the water this summer.

Last week, 17-year-old Sadie Mauro was killed off Cape Cod. The boat she was in hit a jetty, sending her and five others into the water.

On Friday, one woman died and six people were injured when a boat crashed into a break wall and overturned near Chicago's Navy Pier. That crash happened around 3:30 a.m.

"Anybody operating a boat, you need to know your navigational hazards, know your capabilities. Make sure you have life preserves on board for everybody," said CFD Deputy District Chief Jason Lach.

According to the coast guard, 74% of deaths on vessels happen when the operator hasn't received boat safety instruction. And, this now-billion-dollar boating business means more crowded waterways this summer.