St. Pete Woman Missing After Yacht Fire In FL Keys: Monroe Sheriff

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A 51-year-old St. Petersburg woman is missing after fire destroyed a yacht they were on in the Florida Keys early Wednesday morning, authorities said,

The fire engulfed the approximately 70-foot Viking yacht at the Peary Hotel & Marina on Stock Island just after midnight, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.

Two of the women’s family members — a 58-year-old man and a 21-year-old man — were also on the boat at the time of the fire. They were airlifted by Trauma Star to a Miami hospital, the sheriff’s office said.

The St. Petersburg family was visiting the Florida Keys for lobster mini-season. Their names haven’t been released.

Another family of four also on the boat at the time escaped the flames uninjured, the agency said.

The boat was fully engulfed by the time Monroe County Fire Rescue crews arrived. They battled the blaze for about three hours.

The sheriff’s office’s dive team and TowBoat U.S. crews are helping to search for the woman while negotiating hazardous conditions where the vessel sank in the marina, MCSO said.

The state Fire Marshal’s Office and MCSO Major Crimes Detectives are investigating the fire, including its cause.