“It was a near death experience for me and I hope and pray no one else will go through what my crew and I went through… and worse… we had to abandon our boat that was on fire,” said Ipulotu Mafi, a Tongan national who was on the  Kiribati-flagged, 140-foot fishing vessel, a purse seiner — the Betty C — that caught on fire, while out fishing, over the weekend.

Speaking to Samoa News minutes after they docked at the main wharf, Mafi who lives in A’asu, said in Samoan how grateful he is for the life that was almost taken from him when he woke up to find their boat on fire. Mafi said it happened so quickly that he and his fellow crew members jumped into the ocean to get into the skiff and then waited for someone to rescue them. He said that they lost everything— “clothes, money, jewelry, everything.”

According to the Betty C’s captain, Ralph Steven Feliciano, it was around midnight when he was informed that the back of the boat was on fire. “Then we started to put it out with the water, but the fire scattered as the wiring was burning, and then there was no more water and the flames got bigger and then we abandoned the boat into the skiff.

“The whole crew got off safe and we stood out there in the small skiff waiting for the other boat to come as we called them for assistance and then we waited in the skiff and watched the boat burn for another nine hours,” said Feliciano.

A captain for 40+ years, Feliciano told Samoa News this was the first time he’s ever had to abandon ship. According to the captain, they had just left last week to go out fishing, and so they didn’t have too many fish in the boat’s wells. He made it clear that there were no reports of injury and that the cause of the fire is unclear at this time.

According to the US Coast Guard in Honolulu Hawai’i, the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) received a distress alert from an emergency position indicator radio beacon (EPIRB) at 2 a.m.

JRCC determined the EPIRB belonged to the Kiribati-flagged, 140-foot fishing vessel, the Betty C.

JRCC issued a safety net broadcast to which the US-flagged fishing vessel Cape Ferrat responded. Cape Ferrat (also a purse seiner) arrived on the scene at 9:30 a.m. and discovered the Betty C on fire, with its 21 passengers adrift in a small skiff. The Cape Ferrat safely rescued all 21 passengers from the skiff to transfer them to American Samoa. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is unknown.

The vessel’s owner is working to develop a plan to salvage the vessel.

Jarvis Island is an uninhabited 4.5 km2 coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean at 00 22S 160 01W— about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands.

The captain of the Cape Ferrat, John Cabral told Samoa News that as soon as they received the distress call they reacted and sailed towards the location in order to rescue the fishermen. “Glad that everyone is safe,” said Captain Cabral.