Last Sunday, in Tampa Florida, one person died while around 14 others were injured after a wooden shuttle boat in the Gulf of Mexico got burned and dashed.
The 72-foot boat named “Island Lady” was making the 45-minute trip from the small community of Port Richey into international waters where its approximately 50 passengers were then purportedly scheduled to transfer to the Tropical Breeze Casino and enjoy a range of games including roulette and blackjack, which are illegal in the southern state’s non-aboriginal casinos.
However, the 12-year-old shuttle, owned by Tropical Breeze Casino Cruz LLC reportedly experienced engine trouble soon after leaving its home port some 35 miles northwest of Tampa and in the process of returning got burned about 100 yards off the coast of Pasco County but the fire spread very quickly.
So, the passengers were forced to jump approximately twelve feet into waist-deep water and walk 100 yards until the seaboard where they were immediately met by sympathetic locals offering blankets, towels and bottles of water.
A woman of 42 years old identified by the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office as Carrie Dempsey, died at the Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point. initially she went home after the fire incident but afterward she became ill and went to the hospital.
According to local media, this is not the first time that a shuttle vessel operated by Tropical Breeze Casino Cruz LLC has caught fire following a similar incident some 15 years ago that was ultimately blamed on a faulty fuel line. That ferry had just purportedly finished disembarking some 78 casino passengers when its captain and two crew members required rescuing by a passing boat.
