A group of Mallorcan friends who were sailing around Ibiza and Formentera during their holidays came across an unexpected sight on Thursday morning. Suddenly, a few metres away, the group noticed a sailboat on fire and a small inflatable boat carrying six people, three of them minors. They were the occupants of the burning yacht, a family trying to get away from the danger of the fire.
“We saw the family abandoning the boat and immediately alerted Maritime Rescue. It was a Mallorcan family, all of them, the young children were crying, we felt very bad seeing them like that,” explained Fernando Moscardo, a passenger on the boat that alerted the emergency services. The incident took place at around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday at the entrance to the Port de La Savina in Formentera. Witnesses began to see a large column of black smoke.
“My brother Pablo noticed it straight away and raised the alarm by radio; he then continued to report on how the fire was developing and the evacuation,” said Fernando. Several boats from Ibiza, similar to those used for recreational trips and excursions, approached the fire and managed to control the flames with their hoses, despite the fibreglass burning intensely.
Shortly afterwards, two firefighters arrived on board a rescue boat, along with the port control boat. In the end, it was just a scare, although the boat suffered significant material damage. According to initial reports, the fire started in the rear section of the sailboat, where the engines are located.