This story starts off with a much anticipated fishing trip to a somewhat remote area on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in Canada. A good friend of mine was going to a location he fishes almost every year, this time with a person he hadn't been up there with before and they were going on the other guy'™s boat. I had been fishing in the area for several days just a couple of weeks earlier, it's a great wilderness area with little in the way of services or help should an emergency occur.
They meet up with his buddy'™s father and mother in-law who were in their own 26'™ boat and they both anchored in a calm remote cove for the night. They tied the boats together and settled in for a nice evening. The next morning my friend woke up and began to make some coffee, at that moment he said there was a huge explosion, the concussion was so intense he said it took the air out of his lungs and it was a few seconds before he could regain his senses and realize what had happened.
The in-laws on the other boat had just tried to ignite their propane stove to start making coffee and the boat exploded. Propane had leaked into the bilge during the night and when he lit the stove the bilge exploded. The mother in-law had been sitting on the bunk and somehow wasn't that injured by the explosion but was burned severely while escaping from the cabin. The father in-law had been standing up, and when the bilge exploded it forced the floor up and shattered both of his ankles, broke one leg, and slammed him against the roof, this left him with many cuts and other injuries. The biggest problem were the burns though, 50% of his body had been burned severely.
When my friend came out of the cabin on his boat his buddy was on the deck and the mother in-law had just come out of the cabin and was laying over the gunnel into my friend'™s boat (the two were tied side by side), they pulled her over the gunnel and started to evaluate the injuries. There was still debris raining down out of sky into the water in about a 100' circle™. About that time my friend knew he needed to check on the father in-law who was still in the cabin.
The father in-law was still conscious, but the injuries were severe and he needed immediate attention, this was far more than your typical emergency medical kit could handle. They also needed to evaluate the boat to see if it was still burning or sinking, they didn't know how much damage it had sustained. Luckily the fire went out almost immediately, the main fuel tank was intact, and although a spare 6 gallon tank stored on the deck had been tossed to the other side of the boat it hadn't leaked or ignited. The hull also seemed to be watertight, so that part was OK.
My friend got on the radio to call for help and it turned out the Coast Guard was doing some training nearby, but they only had a R.I.B (ridged hull inflatable) and a couple of people, they arrived quickly and took over. From the cove it was a two hour boat ride back to the dock and then another ten miles to a small town that has a small clinic, which wasn't equipped to handle this type of emergency, so he was airlifted to Victoria BC.
He was kept heavily sedated and in a medically induced coma for a couple of weeks, at first they said he wouldn't live, but then he started doing better. After several weeks he started to talk, but now has pneumonia and things don'™t look all that good.
Now another twist to the story.
I was at a family get together yesterday with some relatives that I don'™t see very often and they started talking about my cousin being in the hospital from a mishap on his boat, they said it had exploded while on a fishing trip. As odd as it seems it was my cousin and his wife that this all happened to. I had almost posted this story prior to knowing it was my cousin, and was still thinking about posting it as a warning to those that have propane on their boats, but after finding out it was my cousin I started typing.
My friend had called me several times over the next week or so to discuss the incident, he was very shaken and disturbed about it. This was long before we knew it was my cousin..
They meet up with his buddy'™s father and mother in-law who were in their own 26'™ boat and they both anchored in a calm remote cove for the night. They tied the boats together and settled in for a nice evening. The next morning my friend woke up and began to make some coffee, at that moment he said there was a huge explosion, the concussion was so intense he said it took the air out of his lungs and it was a few seconds before he could regain his senses and realize what had happened.
The in-laws on the other boat had just tried to ignite their propane stove to start making coffee and the boat exploded. Propane had leaked into the bilge during the night and when he lit the stove the bilge exploded. The mother in-law had been sitting on the bunk and somehow wasn't that injured by the explosion but was burned severely while escaping from the cabin. The father in-law had been standing up, and when the bilge exploded it forced the floor up and shattered both of his ankles, broke one leg, and slammed him against the roof, this left him with many cuts and other injuries. The biggest problem were the burns though, 50% of his body had been burned severely.
When my friend came out of the cabin on his boat his buddy was on the deck and the mother in-law had just come out of the cabin and was laying over the gunnel into my friend'™s boat (the two were tied side by side), they pulled her over the gunnel and started to evaluate the injuries. There was still debris raining down out of sky into the water in about a 100' circle™. About that time my friend knew he needed to check on the father in-law who was still in the cabin.
The father in-law was still conscious, but the injuries were severe and he needed immediate attention, this was far more than your typical emergency medical kit could handle. They also needed to evaluate the boat to see if it was still burning or sinking, they didn't know how much damage it had sustained. Luckily the fire went out almost immediately, the main fuel tank was intact, and although a spare 6 gallon tank stored on the deck had been tossed to the other side of the boat it hadn't leaked or ignited. The hull also seemed to be watertight, so that part was OK.
My friend got on the radio to call for help and it turned out the Coast Guard was doing some training nearby, but they only had a R.I.B (ridged hull inflatable) and a couple of people, they arrived quickly and took over. From the cove it was a two hour boat ride back to the dock and then another ten miles to a small town that has a small clinic, which wasn't equipped to handle this type of emergency, so he was airlifted to Victoria BC.
He was kept heavily sedated and in a medically induced coma for a couple of weeks, at first they said he wouldn't live, but then he started doing better. After several weeks he started to talk, but now has pneumonia and things don'™t look all that good.
Now another twist to the story.
I was at a family get together yesterday with some relatives that I don'™t see very often and they started talking about my cousin being in the hospital from a mishap on his boat, they said it had exploded while on a fishing trip. As odd as it seems it was my cousin and his wife that this all happened to. I had almost posted this story prior to knowing it was my cousin, and was still thinking about posting it as a warning to those that have propane on their boats, but after finding out it was my cousin I started typing.
My friend had called me several times over the next week or so to discuss the incident, he was very shaken and disturbed about it. This was long before we knew it was my cousin..
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