Victorian ferry rescues children from boat after fears of fire off Queenscliff
A boat full of school students was evacuated in Port Phillip on Thursday morning after the engine started smoking.
Transcript
00:00 I'm on beautiful Boon Wurrung country here in Sorrento.
00:05 And what we know is that about 8.30 this morning, police responded to reports that a ferry or
00:10 a boat rather was on fire and it had taken off from Queenscliff, which is, you can't
00:15 see behind me, but it's on the other side of Port Phillip, on the other side of the
00:19 bay.
00:20 And there were reports that its engine was on fire.
00:22 Now, police say that actually the engine bay was caught on fire and there was a school
00:26 group on board that boat.
00:28 Now, luckily there were already quite a few other boats out in the water at that time.
00:32 So there was a passing ferry and also a Parks Victoria boat.
00:35 There were 22 people, including school children, who were evacuated from that boat onto the
00:41 ferry.
00:42 Now we understand that it was a boat that departed from here in Sorrento, which is why
00:46 I'm here, but then continued back over to Queenscliff.
00:49 So we understand that those students and that school group has gone over to the other side
00:54 of the bay to Queenscliff.
00:57 Police also say, really importantly, no one was hurt and they don't believe it was a suspicious
01:01 fire at this stage.
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