Boat Fire - Hillsboro Beach

During the afternoon hours in mid-December, the crew at TowBoatU.S. was going about their regular towing and maintenance routine when a call rang out on channel 16 for a vessel on fire and adrift in the Intracoastal waterway just North of Hillsboro Inlet. Captain Jordan Walker quickly made his way from the inlet where he was patrolling to the scene of the boat fire. The occupants of the burning vessel, a 26’ Cobalt had jumped overboard and made their way to shore while the burning vessel drifted alongside a boatlift occupied by a 42’ invincible. Jordan assisted the firefighters in battling the blaze. Once extinguished, the vessel settled on the rocky shore just south of the boat lift. The Cobalt suffered irreparable damage while the Invincible was severely damaged from the flames and heat. The Cobalt was pumped out and towed to the boat ramp. She was loaded on a trailer and taken to TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale’s storage facility where fire investigators, surveyors, attorneys, manufacturers reps all worked together to determine the cause of the blaze which is still under investigation. Check out the video below of the story that WSVN News ran the day of the incident!