HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A fire injured a man and damaged several boats on Sunday at the Hollywood Marina in Broward County. There was a hero.
Patrick Werner, a retired law enforcement officer, said he was on a boat nearby when he heard explosions that he described as “pops, crackles, booms” and saw the tall flames.
“It was taller than a lot of these other masts on these sailboats, 65 feet.”
Before police officers and firefighters responded to the marina, at 700 Polk St., where the Stranahan River and the North Lake meet, Werner rushed to help.
“I immediately jumped off the back of my dingy, off my boat, and tried to get over there to assist.”
A man and a woman were aboard a burning boat. Werner said the man suffered severe burns.
“It’s hard to say if he would have made it. I don’t know. He was going into shock.”
Witnesses said the fire spread quickly because the vessels were all tied together.
“You can’t tie four boats up,” Werner said. “You tie four boats up, you’re running generators, you have fuel, electricity, everything else going on around. It’s just unsafe for you and other people around.”
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