Overview

• At 12:37 UTC on Sunday, flames erupted aboard a 9-meter sportboat carrying two parents and their five-year-old child on the Elbe River
• The family jumped into the water and were rescued by a passing ship’s crew before being treated in hospital for mild hypothermia and minor burns
• Hamburg firefighters deployed 50 personnel, the Löschboot “Branddirektor Westphal” and a rescue helicopter to combat the blaze
• Crews towed the burning boat to a nearby pontoon where it sank, prompting deployment of oil booms to contain a small fuel leak
• The Hamburg Port Authority recovered the sunken wreck later that day and investigators are now examining a probable technical defect