Diesel clean-up underway as fire sinks yacht in marine sanctuary

A 100-foot yacht, La Dolce Vita, has caught fire and sunk, leaving a diesel fuel spill to clean-up, according to the Miami Herald.

It was near the Marquesas, a group of six islands about 17 miles west of Key West, which lie within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex.

The yacht was carrying nearly 4,500 gallons of diesel, but it wasn’t clear last week how much of it had spilled into the waters from the fibreglass-hulled yacht.

Six people aboard La Dolce Vita were safely evacuated on the yacht’s small boat.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. The yacht’s captain radioed the coast guard to report the fire; thought to have started on the starboard generator.

“The owner of the vessel is taking responsibility to contain and remove the resulting diesel spill,” says a US Coast Guard spokesperson. “A commercial salvage crew deployed a containment boom to contain a visible light sheen.”

The agency is overseeing the diesel spill cleanup operations, and says its main concern is the environmental threat.

Images courtesy of the U S Coast Guard.