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Witnesses recount seeing boat explore on Lake Lanier on July 4th
The couple said they originally saw the boat being towed, then a few minutes later, it was on fire.
HALL COUNTY, Ga. - Two boaters said they watched a boat go up in flames while on Lake Lanier while celebrating the July 4th holiday.
What they're saying:
Peter and Jarka Baranowski were out boating on Friday when they noticed something strange.
They said the lake was busy, but the boat stood out to them, even before the fire started. "We drove by and saw a towboat doing something on another boat. We assumed something was broken," Baranowski said.
A few minutes later they saw a large plume of smoke and went to go check it out. They passed the boat again, but it was on fire.
"When I looked at the pictures we just saw big smoke," Baranowski said. "It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what is going on?'"
Baranowski said lots of boaters started coming out to see what happened. "Everybody was shocked and sorry, like, you know, no one would want their boat to be on fire," he said.
By the time the right equipment was there to fight the fire, Baranowski said it was too late. "Most of the boat was gone," he said. "I think it eventually flipped and they pushed it to the marina to get it out of the way."
He said officials tried to keep it at a distance so it wouldn’t catch other boats on fire. The fire crews eventually pushed it out to the center of the lake to keep the flames from reaching shore.
The Hall County Sheriff's Office confirmed seven people were on the boat. They ranged in age between 5 and 45-years-old. They all suffered either second or third degree burns and were taken to the hospital.
The couple said they were shocked when they learned people were hurt.
"You just feel bad," Jarka Baranowski said. "Nobody wants their boat to catch fire. I feel sorry for the people that, you know, they had this misfortune and this happened to them."
Baranowski said he’s been boating for more than a decade and has never seen anything like it.
The two will be on the water again Saturday night with their three children.
"We’ll be in the same place tonight," Baranowski said. "Just hoping everyone stays safe and something like that doesn’t happen again."
Dig deeper:
The incident on Lake Lanier was just one boat explosion on July 4th in Georgia. Another boat exploded on Lake Nottely.
The Source: Information in this article came from FOX 5's Eric Mock speaking to witnesses of the boat explosion. Information also came from the Hall County Sheriff's Office and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.