7 News Features: 4 people, cat escape boat fire

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Detectives are trying to figure out what caused a sailboat to go up in flames Saturday morning, forcing four people and their cat safely into the water.

"We were sleeping about 7 o'clock this morning. We heard a boom that almost knocked us out of our bed," said Anthony Armao, who captured the fiery event on home video.

Steven Justi heard several more explosions. "My first thought was, 'I hope everyone got off.'"

After Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue extinguished the blaze, all that remained of the anchored, 50-foot vessel was a charred shell. "It's a disaster to see somebody's..all those memories gone," said Justi.

Paramedics transported the watercraft's captain to the hospital with minor injuries.

"Pretty terrified," Justi chuckled when asked how the cat may have felt during the ordeal. "I'm sure the cat didn't want to be on the boat with the flames and probably didn't want to get in the water either

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