Footage posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows a man handing a two-month-old baby from the boat to a relative in the water, as the boat catches fire.
Thick plumes of black smoke could be seen from a distance, prompting other boat passengers to rush to the burning ship to transport the family to safety.
“Jump! Jump!” someone shouts. “Get the baby!”
The family had only been on the ship for 45 minutes when they heard what they described as an “explosion.”
“We heard a big explosion. We didn’t know what it was and went to have a look. We discovered that the houseboat’s engine had exploded and caught fire,” Maddy Tolman told local media. “Less than five minutes later a serious fire broke out on the boat.”
Everyone jumped out of the burning boat almost immediately and swam to other ships nearby. Several children, including a two-month-old baby and four children under the age of 12, were also taken to safety.
All passengers were safely evacuated before the ship burned to the ground and sank to the bottom of the Glen Canyon National Park lake. “Fortunately no one had to go to the hospital. No one was injured,” Tolman said.
The cause of the fires is still under investigation.
