RedactedNarrative: On Thursday March 11th, 2021 at approximately 1415 hours, I was dispatched to a boat fire in progress in the mouth of Julington Creek in the St. Johns River near marker Thirteen. Initially, the report was that an unknown number of vessel occupants jumped of the vessel and were pick up by a good Samaritan. Jacksonville Fire Rescue (JFRD) and the Jacksonville Sherriff’s Office (JSO) already had vessels on scene.
  At approximately 1450 hours, I arrived at Trout Creek to board a vessel to respond by water. I arrived on scene at approximately 1455 hours. I immediately observed two JFRD vessels and one JSO vessel. One FJRD vessel had a line attached to the hull of a charred and smoking vessel was towing it to the Mandarin Park Boat Ramp. The vessel was white with red stripes and was approximately Thirty feet long.
  The JSO Deputy informed me the Clay County Marine Unit took aboard the sole occupant of the burned vessel from the good Samaritan’s vessel and transported him to the Mandarin Park Boat Ramp. On my way to the boat ramp I found the Clay Marine Unit and he confirmed there was only one occupant, an older, white male was dropped off at the boat ramp and was instructed to wait for FWC.
  Approximately 250 yards from the boat ramp, just outside the channel markers of the Mandarin Park Boat Ramp, the vessel started taking on water and sank in approximately six feet of water.
  At the boat ramp I identified the sole occupant of the vessel. He informed me the vessel being towed was his, he was the only one on it, and he was uninjured. The vessel was a 1997 Baja. A Fiberglass vessel with two inboard/outboard units driven by twin 302’s.
  Coast Guard Incident Management Division contacted me and asked for an update of the vessel’s status. I informed them that the vessel had just sunk, and we were just beginning to discuss a plan to extract it. They asked me if I could go back out to the vessel to observed if there was any sheen on the water or if there were any signs of fuel or oil leaking. I informed her there was a sheen all around the vessel, but nothing was bubbling up. 
  OP1 did not have Sea Tow or any Tow Boat US memberships, so he obtained a few hundred yards of cable and got a couple of his friends to help him. He pulled his truck that had a 12,000lb winch, up to the ramp. I put him onboard my vessel and I took him out to the sunk vessel. Officers helped OP1’s friends spool out enough cable to get to the vessel. OP1 tied the cable to the nylon rope attached to the bow-eye, and I took him back to the ramp. He used his truck winch and winched the vessel closer to approximately 150 yards or so from the ramp when the cable broke. 
  OP1 had a friend call Sea Tow. Sea Tow advised him they could not help him at all that night nor did they have any lights/bouys to mark the vessel’s position over night.
  At approximately 1930 hours Coast Guard Incident Management Division arrived on scene. They asked if I could take them out so they could survey the sunk vessel. They observed the scene and relayed the information to someone else. 
  Since the vessel was in the channel of a very active boat ramp we advised OP1 that he could not leave the vessel in the channel or he would have to mark it with lights and or buoys. USCG advised OP1 he could not leave the vessel there overnight due to the likelihood of fuel/oil leaks. If he could not get the vessel out the tonight, the Coast Guard would utilize federal assets to extract the vessel and would charge him for extracting. 
  