Fort Lauderdale

3 men who ran toward fiery boat explosion in Fort Lauderdale honored for heroism

Fort Lauderdale’s fire chief said if it wasn't for the help of these three men, the situation at Lauderdale Marina could have been worse.

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Fort Lauderdale Fire officials honored three men who stepped up and ran toward danger last month when a boat exploded at a marina, killing one person and injuring six others.

On Dec. 23 at 6 p.m., a 37-foot boat suddenly exploded after the engines were started. The fire from the explosion spread to another boat.

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Seven people were on the boat. Six of them were hospitalized, several with serious injuries. Divers searched the water for a final person who was pronounced dead on the scene.

But Fort Lauderdale’s fire chief said if it wasn't for the help of these three men, the situation could have been worse.

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Video from Earthcam shows the moments a boat exploded in Fort Lauderdale on Monday.

"You know, with firefighters and police officers, we expect them to respond in an appropriate manner," Chief Stephen Gollan said. "However, when there's civilians just going about their daily routine of working at a restaurant or working on a field dock, you don't expect them to spring into action like these individuals did. There's no doubt in my mind that their quick response saved lives, saved properties, and truly made a difference that day."

At a commission meeting Wednesday, the three were honored with a civilian firefighter's award for their heroism that night.

Moses Lopez was working at the dock at the Lauderdale Marina and was at the bow of the boat during the explosion.

Instead of running away, Lopez immediately ran back toward the boat and helped people to safety.

"It was definitely way worse on the video than I thought, I'll tell you that," Lopez said. "I wasn't expecting to see what I saw on the video. That's why I didn't tell mom about it, really. But yeah, it was definitely a really bad video to see."

Scott Stempkoski and Tamer Dimiati worked to start a fire hose line before the fire department arrived, saving precious seconds.

"We heard a big boom and you had two choices. You either run away or run towards it," Stempkoski said. "We ran towards it and tried to help people out as much as we could. You know, as they say, we wish we could have done better. Well, we lost the guy."

"I mean, it was a very hard moment to be like, okay, listen, I'm going to go out there and try to save somebody's life when an explosion just happened," Dimiati said. "I mean, and then a fire following that. But, you know, it is scary. A lot of people did leave, but we were the ones that they'd go out there and try to do our best to save the people that were injured and were hurt."

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