Twenty four year old Quinton Holden grew up wanting to be a shrimp boat captain.
As a fourth-generational shrimper, he grew up wearing fishing bibs and packing shrimp on the docks at Shallotte Point, NC.
Over time Quinton saved up thousands of dollars was finally able to purchase his first boat in September, a 48-foot, single-engine trawler named the Lori Ann.
Unfortunately on October 6, Holden and his two crew members almost lost their lives in a massive fire near Cherry Grove, SC.
Holden’s young family had big plans for the boat. His wife Kayla also are up in a shrimping family and they had hoped to take their 3-month-old son, Wayne, out on the water when he was old enough.
Quinton Holden, was shrimping off the South Carolina coast on his newly purchased 48-foot trawler when the engine caught on fire and exploded. He and two crew members had jumped off the boat seconds before the explosion.
Just before 4pm, Quinton Holden smelled smoke. When he went down to check on the engine he didn’t see anything. But a few minutes later, smoke began flowing from the engine room. Quinton tried to go back in, the smoke overwhelmed him.
In the midst of the chaos, Richard tried to spray the blaze with a fire extinguisher, however, the fire continued to spread and thick smoke smothered the boat, so they raced to the deck.
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As they were scrambling, Richard tossed a life raft into the water and hopped in first to steady it so the others could get in. They could feel the wood beginning to give way as the fire devoured the trawler.
Right as his cousin Roddy Holden jumped in, he heard an explosion. Flames singed the back of his hair.
First responders got to the raft and brought the men back to shore on personal watercraft to be checked out by a medic, according to a North Myrtle Beach police report
A Little River-based Horry County Fire Rescue boat knocked down flames until the boat sank.
While Quinton Holden wasn’t hurt, Richard’s right eye looked like he’d been socked by a prizefighter and he had a few burns on his right cheek. Other than his singed hair, Roddy Holden was unscathed. But they had also lost nearly all their belongings, except for Quinton’s cell phone.
The men said the fire is still difficult to talk about, and it’s left them shaken.
