Fire at sea but no serious injuries

A SPANISH couple and their two children were rescued unscathed when their boat caught fire off Benidorm.

They leapt from the 7.5-metre boat as the fire took hold 900 metres off the coast and were rescued immediately by another boat nearby.

They were transferred to a Local Police Zodiac which arrived soon after and once ashore the two adults and the children aged six and 10 were pronounced shaken but unhurt.

Meanwhile a Red Cross fireboat set out from Altea to extinguish the fire before the damaged boat could drift ashore.   Two hours later the burnt-out remains sank to the bottom where they will be salvaged by the pelican boat used to clean the  Benidorm Bay seabed.

Four days earlier another boat caught fire approximately 5.5 kilometres from land. Its two occupants – brothers aged 73 and 76 from Villajoyosa – were picked up by a local fishing boat then taken in a Local Police launch to Benidorm.

One had a scratched leg and the other minor burns on his legs and abdomen and after receiving first aid, both men were taken by the Red Cross to Villajoyosa hospital.