Community rally to help a family of teenagers in intensive care after a boat exploded in Margaritaville on Lake Lanier | New
A GoFundMe fundraising campaign has been launched to help cover the medical costs of two teenagers who were severely burned when their family’s boat exploded in Margaritaville in the Lanier Islands on Sunday.
A woman and two teenagers were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta after being injured in the blast, which also sparked a dock fire at the lakeside attraction.
Hall County Fire Department Chief Zachary Brackett said a boat exploded around 2:30 p.m. at the gas docks at the Margaritaville Indecision Harbor on Lake Lanier. Several people were injured by the incident.
“Arriving units found a fully involved boat, an associated dock fire due to a jet ski that moved away from the fire area and six patients to be assessed,†Brackett said.
Those taken to Grady included a 39-year-old woman as well as a 16-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy. The adult female was transported by the Hall County Fire Department to Grady, but the two teenagers were airlifted to hospital.
The other three people who were injured in the incident refused to be taken to hospital by ambulance, according to Brackett.
Brackett said the Hall County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the blaze to determine the cause. The fire has been put out, he said.
The GoFundMe campaign to help the family launched Monday at bit.ly/3o4IECC. Campaign organizer David Dirkse said a family consisting of mother, father, two sons and daughter were on the boat that exploded.
The mother, father and youngest son had minor injuries.
“Right after refueling the boat for a family day out on the lake, their boat blew up, injuring the whole family and causing the two oldest children to flee to Grady’s trauma center,†Dirkse said on the campaign page.
The campaign organizer also said the teens were in Grady’s intensive care, but added that their injuries were not life threatening. He said they “had a long way to go”, however.
“The oldest daughter has suffered the worst injury and will remain sedated for at least a week to get her through the worst of the pain,†Dirkse said. “She has had surgery most of the time today with skin grafts and scraping of burnt tissue. So many people reached out to help us that we decided to create this page for them. This family will have a long road to recovery and we know it will help them. “
The goal of the campaign is to raise $ 125,000 for the family. He had raised $ 8,560 Monday night.