Two teens, one adult hospitalized after boat explodes while refueling on Georgia’s Lake Lanier

Two teens and an adult were among several hurt when a refueling boat exploded on Georgia’s Lake Lanier.

The teens and adult were seriously injured and taken to the hospital, WSB-TV reported Sunday. Six people in all were hurt, WSB said.

It happened at around 2:30 p.m. at a gas dock in the Margaritaville resort’s Port of Indecision, WSB said. Game wardens were alerted at around 2:45 p.m. Sunday of reports the a vessel had exploded while refueling, Georgia Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Mark McKinnon told WXIA-TV.

They arrived to find both the boat and a nearby dock engulfed in flames, as a burning jet ski had drifted away from the boat and come into contact with the jetty.

A 16-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy had to be airlifted to the hospital, Hall County Fire Services Division Chief Zachary Bracket told WXIA. The third victim, a 39-year-old woman, was taken by ambulance, and three other injured people declined to go to the hospital, he said.

The Hall County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating, Brackett said.

The victims’ identities and conditions were not released. The fire, since extinguished, was striking, witnesses said.

“It was a huge billow of black smoke,” an unnamed witness told WSB. “There was a boat burning and a jet ski burning, and the jet ski went under the dock, and it started burning.”

It was the second incident in a day, WSB reported. Earlier on Sunday a 23-year-old man had jumped off a pontoon boat and did not resurface. His body had been recovered.

Last year there were several incidents at points along the 44-mile-long lake about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. At least four people drowned there, including a 17-year-old who disappeared underwater while swimming from a dock to the shore last July. In August two brothers died of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning during an overnight boating trip.