Four people were rescued from a life raft about 16 miles southeast of Cape May on Saturday morning after their commercial fishing vessel caught fire.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said in a news release that crew members aboard the 75-foot fishing vessel Ocean Pearl activated Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB) and abandoned ship after an electrical fire started on board around 10:30 a.m.
Once in a life raft, the crew used a handheld radio to make contact with the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay’s command center. Two Coast Guard response crews from Station Cape May and the crew of Cutter Crocodile, an 87-foot patrol boat ported in Cape May, went out to assist members of the Ocean Pearl, officials said.
Rescue crews found four men in survival suits on the lift raft and brought them to shore. Nobody was injured, according to the Coast Guard.