Man jumps from burning vessel
A 69-year-old man avoided injury when a fire aboard his 9-metre fibreglass vessel forced him to abandon ship and swim for shore at Fingal Head yesterday morning.
Two fire trucks arrived on the scene not long after 10am by which time the boat, which was about 12 metres off the southern bank of the Tweed River, was well ablaze.
Fireman tried to douse the fire from the shoreline but strong winds hampered their efforts in directing water onto the boat.
The blaze had engulfed the vessel and was only extinguished when the boat sank about five metres to the bottom of the river.
Tweed Police's Inspector Gary Cowan, said the driver of the boat had turned off his engine the engine after hearing what he described as a "back-fire". When he tried to re-start the engine, he noticed flames in the engine bay.
"Knowing there was 400 litres of fuel on board, he decided that the best thing he could do was throw out the anchor and then diver overboard," Inspector Cowan said.
Inspector Cowan said that the fuel tanks "mustn't have ruptured" as there was no sign of any fuel leakage.
Maritime Services have since recovered three 100 litre fuel tanks which floated to the surface.
