Four people, including two young boys, remained hospitalized, officials said, more than two weeks after a boat exploded near a popular Fort Lauderdale sandbar on Memorial Day.
Cassandra Rivera, the two boys’ mother, alongside a team of doctors with the Miami Burn Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, spoke publicly for the first time on Wednesday to provide updates on the four burn victims, consisting of two adults and Rivera’s sons, 7-year-old Anthony and 5-year-old Kash.
“It felt like maybe someone poured 2,000-degree water on me,” said Rivera, who also suffered burns to both her arms and legs.
As of Wednesday morning, Anthony remains in serious condition with 80% of his body burned, while Kash is stable with 20% of his body burned.
“I had to realize I didn’t fail as a mom,” Rivera said as she remains by their bedside and continues healing. “I’m still here for my boys: I’m still alive, my boys are still alive, we’re still here and I can comfort them in any way I can.”
As for the adults, one of them remains in critical condition, doctors said.
Their surgeon, Dr. Carl Schulman, said there aren’t many hospitals that can handle that many burn patients at once.
“So, the hospital has an in-house trauma mass casualty protocol,” he said. “We brought nurses and staff down from other parts of the hospital.”
Rivera said she has boated her whole life, calling the explosion a fluke accident, but thankful her family is alive.
“Get up every day, tell your family you love them because you know you may not be here one day,” she said.
Rivera’s family plans to go to a “burn camp” in November, a retreat for survivor children, and then to Disney World for Anthony’s birthday. They will be out of work for a while and have set up a fundraising site. Her family’s attorney is looking into taking legal action.
A fiery explosion that killed 1 person, sent nearly a dozen to the hospital
Loved ones said the explosion was the result of a fluke accident.
Around 5:45 p.m. on Memorial Day, a 39-foot-long Sea Ray boat exploded near 9th Street in Fort Lauderdale, where a sandbar draws boaters and beachgoers on holiday weekends. According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, the boat was anchored during the explosion.
Rivera said she remembers the explosion vividly.
“I was giving my little one, Kash, water, and he looked at me and said, ‘Mommy, I think something bad is going to happen,'” she said.
Rivera was out on a friend’s boat on Memorial Day with her husband, two kids and their four-month-old puppy along with some friends of the boat captain they met that day.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed that 15 people were on board at the time of the incident.
Rivera said the left motor went out. So, they went to get gas and figure out what was wrong at the 9th Street sandbar. That’s when the explosion happened.
“My husband was screaming, ‘I smell fuel, I smell fuel. Please stop, stop, stop,’ and all of the sudden, you just see this fuel explosion,” she said.
A video of the explosion shows the moment the fire ignited, followed by people jumping into the water moments later. Rivera also jumped in the water, scrambling to find her boys.
Ten people, including the two boys, were taken to JMH’s burn unit for treatment.
One of the victims, 28-year-old Joshua Fifi, died after spending four days in the hospital while being treated for third-degree burns over 70% of his body.
Authorities said the explosion likely stemmed from a gas leak or vapors that ignited during refueling, but the cause of the explosion remains under investigation.
