Three men were rescued off B.C.’s Sunshine Coast on Sunday afternoon after a boat caught fire, and one proud father says his son led the way. Paul Tosczak was celebrating his son Kyle’s fifteenth birthday with family and friends at their waterfront home in Port Stalashen, near Sechelt, just before 3:30 p.m. when Kyle noticed white and grey smoke coming from a boat near the White Islets. “We were at the right spot at the right time to do the right thing,” Tosczak told CTV News. “I put the binoculars on them … and it started billowing black smoke,” he explained, noting it appeared to be a 50-foot wooden Chris-Craft boat on fire. He called the Coast Guard to report the fire and found they were responding to a similar call, but this one was fresh. The Tosczaks’ boat was in the shop, so they went to the local marina to ask around. “There was one other marina resident there, and I asked him if he had a boat. He says, ‘Yeah, just a sailboat.’ I said, ‘Well, okay, that’s not fast enough,’” Paul explained. “Kyle said, ‘Phone Mike’ … We jumped on his boat and ran out there as quick as we could.” The Tosczaks were the second to arrive on scene, as a local with a motorized e-foil also saw the flames. They found and made contact with a pair of men in the water and determined a third person was still in the boat and needed rescue. “Kyle flipped the swim ladder down and plucked the two guys out,” he recalled. “Then we kind of docked the boat up over to the third person who was on the boat and helped him on board.” All three men were cold, wet, and shaking, “so hypothermia was definitely a consideration,” Paul added. The Tosczaks made contact with the Coast Guard again to let them know that all the burning vessel’s passengers were now safe. After some discussion, Paul told them he would bring them to his nearby house. His partner Katherine drove a car down and met the group at the marina, and all three sailors hopped in to warm up. They returned to the Tosczaks’ home, and the Coast Guard arrived on the beach in a hovercraft soon after. “We made a joke and said, ‘You know, you guys want to stay for dinner?’ Because of course we had a pretty big prime rib. They graciously declined because they had work to do,” Paul laughed. Two of the sailors were from Richmond, and the Coast Guard returned them home. The third lived in Sechelt and, after warming up at the house, caught a ride home from a party attendee. Paul said the entire situation unfolded in about 30 minutes, and applauded the Coast Guard’s response time, especially coming from another rescue. “They were unbelievably good to work with,” he said. “Two other volunteer units were dispatched, and they got stood down once the Coast Guard found out that Kyle and I were on scene and we actually had the three people on board.” Paul said he was impressed with his son’s efforts. “Kyle was right in there, and he did an exceptional job,” he said. “My kid was the first guy out of our boat with a hand to help these guys on board, so I was pretty proud of him for that.” “He was a true professional out there.” B.C. Emergency Health Services confirmed that no one was hospitalized or attended to by paramedics as a result of this incident. CTV News has reached out to Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue for more information. As for the boat, Paul said the Chris-Craft vessel sank near the White Islets.
