Fire crews are responding to an explosion reported at the Deep Bay Marina.
The explosion occurred on the morning of June 5. Reports indicate that a sailboat in the marina exploded, damaging others nearby. An air ambulance was also reported taking off from the scene.
Martin Martens lives a few houses away from the scene. He said that "the explosion was heard for several kilometres.
"All of the houses in Deep Bay were shaken, as if a major earthquake hit," he said.
The incident occurred at 10:05 a.m., Martens said.
"My house just shook," he said. "I don’t live far away from the marina and at first I thought it was a tree coming down."
Martens, a paramedic and Search and Rescue member, said he treated two of three people who were injured in the blast. One person had been removed from the boat, and another woman was standing on top. Martens said there was a third person down in the boat as the boat was smoking.
"Four or five bystanders got them out," he said. "We got people out as quickly as possible."
"The boat was just blown apart," he said.
Two of the people injured had serious burns, and were flown out by air ambulance, Martens said.
Martens told the Record that the sailboat had sunk at around noon.
"This is the first time since I lived here - that I am aware of that something like this happened," he said. "It’s a marina, so things happen all the time, but nothing like this."
As of noon on Thursday, crews were still busy on scene. The Record has reached out to the Deep Bay Improvement District and will be hearing back from the Deep Bay fire chief later once things are more resolved on the ground.
More to come...
