WATCH: Video shows hundreds of passengers being evacuated as fire breaks out on Staten Island Ferry

A Staten Island Ferry carrying more than 800 passengers was evacuated Thursday following a fire.

The US Coast Guard was seen evacuating hundreds of passengers from the vessel on Thursday. The fire reportedly started in the engine room. According to reports, five people had sustained injuries.

According to the New York City Fire Department, they received a distress call “regarding a fire in the mechanical room” of the vessel at about 5.18 pm local time on Thursday. A massive rescue operation was initiated to evacuate the passengers on board.

The injured were rushed to the hospital, while others had to be treated on the spot. FDNY officials stated that authorities are currently investigating what caused the fire on the Staten Island Ferry. Several videos have surfaced on the Internet that captured the evacuation process.

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The Staten Island Ferry had 868 people and 16 members of the crew on board

On December 22, 2022, the New York City Fire Department received alerts about a fire that broke out on the Staten Island Ferry in New York Harbor. NY Waterway also tweeted about the incident and mentioned how it assisted in the evacuation procedure. The tweet read,

“This evening, NY Waterway assisted with the evacuation of a Staten Island Ferry that experienced an engine room fire. NY Waterway’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt ferry evacuated 558 passengers, who are now being brought to St. George on Staten Island.”

According to the New York City Fire Department, there were precisely 868 people on board and 16 members of the crew on the ferry. Soon after the distress call was made, firefighters reached the scene and contained the fire to the engine room of the ferry. According to authorities, five passengers sustained minor injuries, two of them were given immediate medical aid, while the other three were rushed to the Richmond University Medical Center.

Hours after the incident happened, the New York City Department of Transportation shared an update about the situation and said,

“The ferry had to be temporarily anchored near Bayonne due to a fire limited to the engine room.”

The government agency also worked alongside other agencies to ensure the safety of the passengers who were on the ferry.

The NYC DOT took to Twitter and wrote,

“Known impacts from smoke are limited & the nature of the fire is under investigation.”

The Staten Island Ferry was supposedly a new one and was worth $85 million. It was headed to Staten Island from Lower Manhattan. The fire broke out while it was in New York Harbor. It reportedly started at 5 pm local time. After evacuation, the passengers were shifted to St. George Terminal.

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Visibility inside the vessel was very low due to the heavy smoke

Sal Chatman Morando, a resident of Staten Island, mentioned hearing a man screaming that there was smoke coming from the ferry’s bottom. Morando recalled the scary incident and said,

“I thought he was crazy, I thought there's no way.”

Members of the rescue teams mentioned that the visibility was extremely low due to heavy smoke, and they had to depend on off-radar to reach the burning boat. Many videos have surfaced online that show how smoky the area had become.

Another passenger, Elizabeth Quinn, spoke to SI Live about the incident and said,

“But the fire alarms weren't going off, and we were still moving.”

Quinn mentioned that she had put on her headphones but could still hear the beeping sound of the alarms. She was going to visit her family on Staten Island. She was seated on the lower-level deck. She further added,

“I started to text my friends and I was like, I think something’s wrong with the boat, but I was kind of like joking around about it. Then the ferry [employees] started like talking on their walkie-talkies, and I was like, wait, I think that this is kind of serious.”

She then mentioned that members of the NYC DOT arrived and started moving the passengers onboard. Quinn continued,

“[They said], ‘Everyone to the front of the boat, grab a lifejacket.’ They started throwing lifejackets at us, no one has any idea what was going on, and all of a sudden, the lights go out. It was absolutely insane. There were people screaming that the ferry was gonna explode.”

Sydney George was traveling with her boyfriend and was on their way back to Staten Island from a doctor’s appointment. She recalled the incident and said,

“People started panicking, they were shaken up and having anxiety attacks, and you could smell the smoke. I felt scared.”

Other passengers mentioned that the visibility was so low due to the heavy smoke inside the vessel that one could not even see their own hands.

Traffic was disrupted due to the fire too. The reason behind the fire is currently under investigation.