One mariner was taken to the hospital with burns after a fishing boat caught fire and its three-person crew abandoned ship into a life raft.
The Promise Land, a 48-foot fishing boat from Eastern Harbor, had left port this morning with two men and a boy aboard. At 11 a.m., the Maine State Police received a cellphone call that the boat was on fire and the crew had to abandon ship.
The Coast Guard dispatched two rescue boats from Jonesport, as well as a Falcon and a Jayhawk helicopter from Cape Cod. It also dispatched the Cutter Moray.
The search was hampered initially because the crew was unable to provide a precise location and the location provided by the cellphone company was not accurate, the Coast Guard said.
Also complicating the search was heavy fog on shore that made visibility difficult.
Other boats were able to see a column of smoke and helped direct the Coast Guard to the area 15 miles southeast of Jonesport.
The boat was still burning this afternoon and the Coast Guard expected it would be a total loss.
The crew was brought back to Jonesport and the injured fisherman was taken to a hospital with moderate burns, the Coast Guard said.
The fire started in the forward part of the boat but the Coast Guard was yet unable to say what caused it.
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