A family of three jumped overboard and swam to shore, after their 55-foot yacht drifting along the Turnberry Marina in Aventura exploded and burst into flames Monday morning.
The family made it safely to shore and no one was injured, said Lt. Eric Baum, a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman.
Officials did not know what caused the fire, he said, which consumed a major part of the boat's fiberglass haul.
He also said firefighters struggled to contain the fire because its flames burned through ropes that the yacht's owners tied to the dock before they abandoned ship.
The yacht, which had 470 gallons of fuel on board, began to drift farther away, Baum said, at one point almost crashing into other ships.
Fearing a crash would lead to a bigger fire, Fire Rescue, the U.S. Coast Guard, and a private Aventura towing company cornered the yacht against a cement wall and extinguished the flames.
