A couple in Clearwater, Florida, is thankful to be alive and grateful to a helper who seemingly came out of nowhere.
John Brawley and his wife have been boating since the day they met and have had their beloved yacht for 30 years, Fox 13 reported on Thursday.
As they were anchored in Clearwater Harbor on Saturday on their way to Sarasota, something terrible happened around 3:00 a.m. that could have cost them their lives.
When the couple began to feel hot, Brawley said, “I opened the door and whoosh! This wicked smoke comes flying in, very acidic, and it was burning my eyes. We were choking instantly,” he told WFLA.
The two immediately knew they had to evacuate, so they ran outside. They had not grabbed their phones, so there was no way to call for help. However, they did not expect to see a fishing boat coming straight at them.
The boatman pulled up alongside their yacht and told them to hop on so they could call the U.S. Coast Guard for help.
Brawley recalled, “After we were on the dock, about 15 minutes later, you can see flames popping out of the engine room. From there, the combustion was amazing. It burned from end to end.”
Following the harrowing escape and rescue, Brawley said, “We couldn’t be luckier” and expressed gratitude to the emergency crews who responded to the scene to put out the blaze.
Video footage shows the nearly sunken yacht that was still smoking:
Per the Fox 13 article, the boat later sank, and divers assessed it to determine if it could be brought back to shore. Officials are planning to remove the vessel and are currently unsure what caused the blaze.
Brawley said, “It was less than 30 minutes of our life, and everything changed just like that. We are here and in one piece. We are very thankful.”
In July, a couple on a diving trip who went missing off the Texas coast were rescued by the Coast Guard after being lost for 38 hours, Breitbart News reported.