There’s nothing like that sinking feeling you get as you watch your boat, out of reach on the water go up in flames.
Owning a boat is a lifestyle. This isn’t like owning a plant that you can put in a corner and forget or a housecat that you haven’t seen for weeks. A boat has endless maintenance and upkeep and despite your best efforts, everything you worked hard for can still blow up in your face.
Boats are often the most-beloved family vehicle, where some of the most memorable occasions occur. To watch this sort of gasoline-powered keepsake be destroyed by fire, with so much water just sitting there, waiting for the boat to sink to do its job, must he infuriatingly helpless.
Lucky for one man, a couple of cool guys on jet skies were nearby and the group thought fast to save his livelyhood.
It was David Peguero’s first time out on his Jet Ski this season.
“We were out riding and we saw the smoke,” Peguero said.
“I and my three friends drove out. I saw the captain of the burning boat getting off onto another fisherman’s boat. So that’s when I got real close and thought, let’s save the boat,” said Peguero.
Kelvin Toro of Cleveland got in line behind Peguero as they surrounded the boat and started splashing it with their Jet Skis.
“I was ready. Let’s go. At first I was just focused on making big waves and splashing it down,” said Toro.
The Facebook Live video shows Peguero, Toro, and another Jet Skier taking turns putting out the flames.
“If we would have waited, the boat would have sunk. It took the coast guard 10-15 minutes to show up,” said Peguero.
Video of the incident was soon circulating on social media.
Watch as an off-duty firefighter from the Rochester Fire Department uses his jetski to put out a boat fire. pic.twitter.com/76yMaEDqPw
— Cheddar (@cheddar) May 28, 2021
The Coast Guard first thanked the good samaritans for helping out but also advised against taking such risks in the future.
