Tragedy Strikes Florida Casino Boat

One woman is dead and 50 people were rescued near Port Richey, Florida when a casino boat caught fire. Many passengers jumped to the water below to save their own lives.

The Coast Guard was sifting through the charred remains of a casino shuttle boat Monday to determine the cause of a spectacular fire that forced dozens of passengers to leap for their lives into the chilly waters off Florida's Gulf Coast.

All that remained from Sunday's inferno was the burned-out hull, an American flag flying from the bow.

Authorities in Port Richey, about 40 miles north of St. Petersburg, said immediately after the fire that more than a dozen people suffered non-life threatening injuries. The incident turned tragic Monday when authorities announced that a woman had died.

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point said in a statement that the 42-year-old victim went to the hospital several hours after the blaze and died soon after. The cause of death had not been determined, and authorities declined to release her name.

The Coast Guard said it would review the boat's maintenance history. Fifer said the boat had no known issues before the fire.

The boat was shuttling its passengers to the Tropical Breeze Casino ship at about 4 p.m. when the fire broke out, and the captain returned to shallow waters, grounding the shuttle boat near the shore.

Video, photos and witness accounts from the scene describe a horrifying several minutes as passengers jumped about 10 feet into water about waste high, then scrambled to shore.

Bakr Jandali, 19, lives nearby and heard the shouting, then saw the smoke. He told The Tampa Bay Times he and other neighbors ran to the scene and saw the flames slowly engulf the boat. Passengers huddled at the rail, weighing their options.

Police, fire officials and officers from Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission responded to the scene; some first-responders crashed into the water to help get some people to shore.

The shuttle boat was taking people about a ship about a mile offshore, Fossa said. The shuttle hadn't gone far, and the boat got close enough to the shore to make escape manageable, he said.

Source: USA Today