A gas leak seems to have caused an explosion that injured six people on a boat this past weekend at Smith Mountain Lake, according to officials.
Of the six injured, three people remain hospitalized, according to the Roanoke Times. Two people are still in serious conditions at the University of Virginia burn center.
The 25-foot vessel had just pulled away from the dock after refuelling at the marina when authorities say gasoline vapors sparked the boat's engine.
Sgt. Kar Martin, a conservation police officer with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, told the news source that the explosion only lasted about a second but went quite high and was extremely forceful. The fireball, as the paper described it, burst from an enclosed space near the boat's engine Saturday afternoon.
The fire that ensued was quickly put out by a marina employee who boarded with a fire extinguisher. The Times said this employee most likely saved the boat, which had 72 gallons of gas in it, from a much larger fire.
It isn't known if the vessel had
small boat insurance, but there are specific policies that could cover boats in the case of fire damage.