Four Americans Injured In Bahamas Boat Blast Being Treated In Florida
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Four Americans are back in the U.S. after surviving a deadly tour boat explosion in the Bahamas.
The 40 charter boat was carrying ten tourists and two Bahamians when an engine exploded shortly after it set off from the island of Exuma. An American woman was killed, the others were injured.
Passengers on another tour boat jumped into action and helped rescue the survivors. One man brought onboard was bleeding from the back of his head.
Christian Topperwien, a German television host, helped with the rescue. He said when they reached land, the injured were carted off on makeshift gurneys.
"We had to transport them with wood panels from the boat to the land and then on a pickup truck," he said. "I actually expected at least like a helicopter or an ambulance, but there was nothing."
The U.S. Coast Guard flew four survivors to Tampa. Five remain in the Bahamas, transported more than a hundred miles to a hospital in the capital of Nassau where one passenger had her legs amputated according to a family relative.
Topperwien said the boats were taking vacationers to see the Bahamas' famous swimming pigs. He and his wife would have been on the destroyed ship had they not switched to a longer tour at the last minute.
"It's a total nightmare, so for us, especially for us, it's like okay, that was something from the universe, like we were safe," he said.
