A boat exploded in Huntington Harbour about 11:30 a.m. Saturday, injuring eight people aboard, the Sheriff's Harbor Patrol said.
Nine people, ranging in age from teens to 50, were on the 26-foot power boat when it exploded, sheriff's Deputy William Nelson said. Eight were injured and taken to hospitals, he said.
The nine people were headed to Long Beach, Nelson said. The boat was two to three minutes away from the harbor's main public launching ramp when the driver noticed gasoline leaking and commented to the passengers that they should turn back. That's when the explosion occurred, Nelson said.
"They didn't get very far at all when they started having engine trouble," Huntington Beach Fire Capt. Bob Culhane said. The engine had been sputtering, he said.
The passengers suffered broken bones, scrapes and bruises, he said. The injured were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, Hoag Hospital Newport Beach and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, officials said.
The eight people in the water were pulled out by the sheriff's Harbor Patrol and a retired Harbor Patrol member on a private boat. A Long Beach lifeguard boat helped put out the fire.
"I looked out and saw a boat smoking with some people in the water. The explosion blew them into the water," said Kyle Armstrong of Murrieta. The boat caught fire and then drifted to shore, he said.
The boat had been exiting the harbor through a small channel, Armstrong said. "It's burned down now, destroyed," he said. "I was wondering if they were OK. It was shocking."
The injured were treated by paramedics at the Simple Green dock. The boat had been in the middle of the bay when the blast occurred.
Toby Burger of Belmont Shore was riding his bicycle through the Surfside Colony neighborhood after surfing nearby when the boat exploded. He said neighbors came outside to find out what happened.
"It sounded to me like someone slammed a door," Burger said.
Boat explosions usually are caused by a gas leak and a spark, Nelson said, the spark sometimes coming from starting the engine.
Huntington Beach Fire Department responded with four fire engines, one truck, two battalion chiefs, six ambulances and a hazmat unit to clean up the fuel in the water, Culhane said.
Yvonne Wachter, a resident of Trinidad Island in Huntington Harbour, said the smell of burning plastic was so bad that her family had to close its home's windows.
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