A family's sailboat, and the place they called home, smoldered and slowing started sinking into the waters off Coquina Key in St. Pete Tuesday afternoon.
"My boss came and called me and told me my boat's on fire," said owner Jahrah King.
King rushed from the nearby marina where he works to the shore to check on his wife and four-year-old little girl.
"My wife was cooking using a stove on board and the fire got out of control," said King.
His wife grabbed their daughter and jumped off the boat.
"She must have been panicking thinking about our child, which she did the right thing," King said.
A good Samaritan spotted the two and came to help pull them on shore. That person slipped away before investigators had a chance to talk with them. But the family is forever thankful for their actions.
"The situation could've been worse where they wouldn't have been able to make it off as in tact as they are. So one has to be grateful for that," King said.
King's little girl is doing just fine. His wife is being treated at the hospital for burns and smoke inhalation, but is expected to recover. The family calls themselves "cruisers," and sad to see their way of life slowly sink away. But after losing two boats to hurricanes, now this one to fire, they're ready to plant roots on land.
"We were just having fun sailing around but everybody's fine and that's life. We'll just continue on," said King.
