CAPITOLA — Two people were evacuated from a boat that caught fire off the Santa Cruz County coastline Wednesday morning and one first responder involved in the rescue effort was sent to the hospital before the blaze was completely knocked down.

Central Fire District Battalion Chief and incident commander Jacek Kokot told the Sentinel that crews were called around 7:30 a.m. to Capitola Beach after receiving reports that a fishing vessel had caught fire about 1 mile from shore. A Harbor Patrol team with the Santa Cruz Port District was quickly dispatched out into the water to help extinguish the fire on the 48-foot Delta salmon seiner, which was built in 1974. Despite early indicators of progress, the firefighting effort proved unsuccessful.

“The fire got worse and ultimately the vessel was completely engulfed in flames,” said Kokot, adding that calls for mutual aid were put in with the city of Monterey Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard.

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The two crewmembers on the boat, known as The Navigator, were evacuated to the Capitola Wharf before the response became unmanageable and they were quickly provided irrigation to clear the smoke from their eyes. After doing so, one of the responders with the Harbor Patrol, also there to clear their eyes, began exhibiting symptoms for a smoke inhalation injury and was promptly taken for further evaluation and treatment at Dominican Hospital, according to Kokot.

Santa Cruz Harbormaster Blake Anderson told the Sentinel at 1:40 p.m. that the staffer was still being evaluated.

Anderson said that the Harbor Patrol crewmember boarded the boat in an attempt to start a water pump that could be used to douse the area emitting smoke, but conditions continued to deteriorate.

“When our staff got there, the fire was quite small and there were no flames seen or anything like that,” continued Anderson. “They felt it was safe enough to at least make an attempt to extinguish the fire and as soon as they saw flames, they retreated.”

While the U.S. Coast Guard will lead the official investigation into the fire’s cause, Anderson said the smoke appeared to billow from an area that housed the boat’s generator. But that part of the vessel was covered with metal and the smoke was thick enough to obscure the view.

Chris Grogan, division chief at the Monterey Fire Department, said his team received a call around 7:51 a.m. and immediately dispatched the city’s fire boat to make the 45-minute trip across the bay to the scene of the incident. Upon arrival, crew members set up an attack and were able to bring the fire back under control by about 9:23 a.m.

Grogan said that as of approximately 10:10 a.m., Monterey fire and U.S. Coast Guard units were monitoring the boat for potential flare-ups while they awaited arrival of a towing vessel to pull it back to shore.

The damage was so catastrophic that, according to Anderson, the boat eventually sank beneath the waves and met its anchor at the bottom of the sea. He added that a salvage effort will soon begin to scoop up as many of the boat’s components from the seabed as possible, as the coastal waters in Capitola are included within the federally protected Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Kokot said The Navigator launched out of the Monterey Harbor and was fishing for squid when the fire erupted.