Stranded Fishermen Rescued After Burning Boots for Smoke Signal

When your boat catches fire nine kilometers offshore, most safety experts would tell you not to light more fires. Two Tasmanian fishermen did exactly that and lived to tell the tale.

A 53-year-old local and his 62-year-old fishing buddy were stranded in their 4.6-meter aluminum boat off Tasmania's east coast on Sunday afternoon when an electrical fault sparked a fire in the bow. With no radio and limited supplies, they made a bold choice.

They kept the fire going. Then they fed it everything they had: plastic buoys from their cray pots, ropes, their own boots, and even the engine cowling.

The thick black smoke worked. Multiple people onshore spotted it around 2pm and called police, triggering a two-hour search involving a rescue helicopter and the St Helens Marine Rescue team.

John "JD" Dearing, president of the marine rescue unit, remembers the moment they found the men. One fisherman's face was "completely black with soot" and his eyes had turned "milky white" from smoke inhalation. They'd been bobbing at sea for eight hours with only one oar, trying to fashion another from plastic scraps.

"The two guys were absolutely, not in panic mode, but they were relieved to see us," Dearing said. After a bumpy ride back through choppy waves, both men made it safely to shore.

The Bright Side

Police Sergeant Josh Hayes was quick to call the men "very lucky" and noted that burning your boat is "highly unrecommended." But he also acknowledged something important: in this case, it worked.

The incident shows why old-school survival instincts still matter. While modern safety equipment like VHF radios and emergency beacons would have made the rescue faster, these fishermen used what they had. Their quick thinking and the vigilance of people onshore combined to create a successful rescue.

Hayes emphasized that drift modeling showed ocean currents would have carried the men north and east, further out to sea, if rescuers hadn't reached them. The 62-year-old was treated for smoke inhalation at St Helens District Hospital and both men recovered.

The message from authorities is clear: always tell someone your plans before heading out and carry proper communications equipment. But when all else fails, sometimes you have to get creative to survive.