Photos: Couple rescued after pleasure boat bursts into flames

This is the terrifying moment an elderly couple escaped being burned alive after their boat caught fire on the River Ouse in East Yorkshire.

The pleasure cruiser vessel burst into flames on the River Ouse estuary at around 9am on Tuesday morning.

An RNLI crew raced to the scene, and a man and a woman were rescued from a dinghy - which was already melting in the heat - attached to the rear of the boat.

Eye witness Nick Hitchen caught the moment the blaze took hold on camera as he and his wife Linda watched from their home near Blacktoft, East Yorkshire.

Both people on board the 36-foot vessel - a couple believed to be in their 60s - were rescued unharmed from the fire.

Heat from the flames melted the entire top of the boat before it sank under the water in less than an hour.

Nick, 46, a HGV driver, told Caters News: "My wife Linda called me out to the garden and we saw this boat on fire and a couple in a dinghy on the back of it. It was melting the heat was so intense.

"They were both rescued by the RNLI, and there were four fire engines at the scene but there was nothing they could do.

"You could see the flames take hold so quickly, the boat had apparently had engine trouble and stopped. We don't know why it caught fire."

Graham Anderson, from Humber Rescue, said the fire had posed a danger to other boats on the river.

He said: "The heat would have been quite intense. Plus, you don't know what's going to explode, so obviously you've got to keep your distance from the vessel.

"Luckily, the people had got into the small boat so they were at a safe distance so we could safely transfer them on to the rescue boat."

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