5 Rescued -- Including 4-Month-Old Baby -- Off Burning Boat Near Venice
VENICE (CBSLA.com) — Five people -- including a baby -- were rescued Saturday off a boat that caught fire off the coast of Venice.
Lifeguards with LA County were able to pull the five people -- three females, one male and a 4-month-old girl -- to safety.
Lifeguards, Sheriff's Harbor Patrol and LA County Fire Boat #110 extinguished the blaze. Officials were able to tow the disabled boat to Marina del Rey.
There is no cause for why the 40-foot pleasure boat caught fire, officials said.
KCAL9's Erica Nochlin reports that rescue crews arrived just in the nick of time.
LA County Lifeguards provided dramatic video of the rescue.
The video shows them rescuing 4-month-old Isabelle and her mom, Theresa Gandler.
"Everything happened so fast, it was like a movie," said Gandler.
The baby and her parents all went to the hospital as a precaution. The family, along with two other adults, had to jump off the boat to safety.
"I just opened the engine compartments and fire went up like crazy, " said Gwindael Buchon, the boat's owner and Isabelle's dad. "It just took seconds, we just had time to move in front of the boat, jump in the water, and lifeguards were here."
The fire moved so quickly, no one on board had time to grab for life vests.
Isabelle and her mom both went under the water but fortunately lifeguards were there to fish them out.
"They surfaced, I grabbed the baby, identified myself as the lifeguard and I, what they call egg-beatering, held the baby over my head and swam it back to my rescue boat," said LA County Lifeguard Jon Van Duinwyk.
Isabelle was the youngest child he ever rescued.
"When I was holding that little girl, I was thinking of my daughter all the way across ," Ven Duinwyk says, "Words can't describe it, it's why I wanted this job, is days like this."
Gandler was also happy to see the lifeguards at the ready.
"It was a very scary moment. Right now, just happy it's over and everybody is safe, I was happy lifeguards were there," Gandler said.
