The Coast Guard and several local law enforcement agencies responded to the distress call from a chartered fishing boat around 8:40 a.m. Wednesday.
The crew of the Miss Calabash II radioed out for help on marine channel 16, a channel used by all vessels to signal a need for help, after the boat’s captain, Dan Manos noticed a fire in the engine compartment of the boat.
“It was just a quick fire and nothing; we don't have a whole lot of time. Fire just started coming up, no indication of a problem, it just started coming up out of the engine compartment,” Manos said.
Manos said his crew quickly tried to put the fire out and close off the air that was fueling the fire, but neither approach worked before the captain decided it was time to give the ship up, “I've been a captain for about 30 years and I've never had to step off a boat and it's a funny feeling in your stomach to be in the water and watching the boat float away," Manos told News13 from the boat’s Calabash, NC dock.
The captain and 25 other passengers and crew all took life vests and life rafts and floated in the open water until help arrived.
That help came in the form of a fellow fishing boat from Little River, the Fisher of Men; a chartered fishing boat that happened to be nearby when the fire broke out.
Coast Guard Senior Chief Curtis Dewey said after the call went out, the Coast Guard’s rescue plan went into effect, “These are fishermen up here, they’re on the water, they understand that when someone is in trouble, we’re going to help out,” Dewey said.
The plan radios all vessels up the coast and alerts them of the trouble, which allows those who can respond to an emergency to do so as soon as possible, even before rescue crews might reach the scene.
The Coast Guard helicopter was the only unit that made it to the burning ship and sent a diver down to a boat to check on one of the women pulled from the burning Miss Calabash II.
The woman didn’t have any injuries and it was obvious to Captain Manos, “I was worried about her, she was on another boat. I looked over there and she was sitting back eating watermelon, so I said I guess everything is going to turn out all right. Glad to be home,” Manos said.
Towing companies should tow the boat out of the water sometime Wednesday night according to the fishing charter owners.
The Coast Guard said no one on board the boat suffered anything more than scrapes and bruises.
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