Beaches Fire Department rescues stranded boaters from St. Joseph Bay
Gulf County Beaches Volunteer Fire Department’s water rescue team successfully brought two stranded boaters back to shore near the Highland View Bridge Thursday.
GCBFVD recieved a call at 11:33 a.m. that two boaters were in need of rescue after their vessel had taken on significant amounts of water.
The water rescue team arrived at the scene at 11:40 a.m. and were able to safely recover both boaters.
“Two folks from out of town were in a boat that started taking on water,” Gulf County Emergency Management Director Matt Herring said. “About half the boat was filled with water when it ran aground on a sandbar just inside the St. Joseph Bay.”
Beaches Fire Department was assisted in the rescue by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the St. Joe Volunteer Fire Department, the Highland View Volunteer Fire Department and South Gulf Fire Rescue.
“It was a collaborative effort,” Herring said.
No injuries were reported at the scene.
Meet the Editor
Wendy Weitzel, The Star’s digital editor, joined the news outlet in August 2021, as a reporter covering primarily Gulf County.
Prior to then, she interned for Oklahoma-based news wire service Gaylord News and for Oklahoma City-based online newspaper NonDoc.com during her four years at the University of Oklahoma, from which she graduated in May with degrees in online journalism and political science.
While at OU, Weitzel was selected as Carnegie-Knight News21 Investigative Fellow among 30 top journalism students from around the country. She also was senior editor managing a 12-person newsroom in coordination with Oklahoma Watch, a non-profit news organization in eastern Oklahoma.