Aside from a lost yacht, the victims came out of the accident unscathed, said Adam McDaniel, also with the U.S. Coast Guard.
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Marquez was boating with several friends around 6:30 p.m. when he said they spotted the heavy smoke and flames, reportedly tearing up from the engine.
The Coast Guard and some Good Samaritans rescued four people when their boat caught fire Saturday off the South Galveston Jetty in Texas.
He spoke with KHOU 11 News just hours later and explained what happened: “There was four people, there was a mom and son and her husband and I believe her father”.
The good Samaritans called Sector Houston-Galveston on VHF-FM channel 16 to report that they saw the boat on fire.
“I was yelling, ‘throw the kid, throw the kid!'” Michael Marquez recalled Saturday evening’s harrowing rescue off the coast of Galveston to KHOU. A boat passing by helped them escape the flames.
While the mother and the child were taken aboard the fishing vessel after having jumped ship, the two men left behind were eventually picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard and safely transported away from the wreckage. All four people were wearing life vests when rescued.
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Those rescued – three adults and a six-year-old boy – were pulled to safety before the yacht sunk to its watery grave in the waters near Galveston, Texas.
