SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 (San Francisco News Online) — San Francisco fire crews rescued multiple people from a pontoon boat near Alcatraz Island on Tuesday and were still searching for a missing person after one of the rescued victims needed CPR, officials said.
San Francisco Fire Lt. Mariano Elias said the emergency call came in just after 3:30 p.m. when the pontoon pleasure boat was about 600 yards from Alcatraz. Chief Dean Crispen said the vessel was a three-deck pontoon boat carrying 19 people and said it was believed to have launched near the St. Francis Yacht Club.
Crispen said the boat was first reported as a fire, but that officials later found no sign one had started. “We now don’t have any evidence of that,” he said, adding that the vessel “was capsized and mostly under the water.”
Crispen said one person died after being pulled from the water, and one dog on the boat also died. Officials gave changing counts during the response as crews tried to account for everyone aboard.
The search involved divers, helicopters and 11 vessels, Crispen said, with help from the U.S. Coast Guard and Oakland police. Mayor Daniel Lurie said, “We are in an active search,” and called it “an all-hands-on-deck search and, hopefully, rescue.”
People rescued were taken to Gashouse Cove Marina, and officials also set up a family reunification center at Fort Mason, where the Human Services Agency and the American Red Cross were helping people.
