'I have to get out of here so I can live': Captain survives explosion; will he boat again?

NORTH PALM BEACH — Capt. Tim Hoban wants to return to the water if his badly burned body lets him. He wonders if he ever will.

His boat went up in flames on the morning of Aug. 24 after he had docked it at Lott Brothers, a fishing-supply store along Northlake Boulevard, and had started doing a maintenance check before his day's charters.

“Next thing I knew, I was unconscious and engulfed in flames,” the 47-year-old Lake Park resident said from his bed at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami this past week. “I jumped off the side of the boat into the water and started screaming for help.”

Nearly half of Tim’s body sustained second and third-degree burns. He is recovering at Jackson's trauma center and hopes to go home this week, after receiving skin grafts onto the burns covering his legs, feet, hands, back and face.

Hoban called his wounds “the most painful thing” he has ever experienced, especially when they are cleaned, which happens daily and can take hours each time. His greatest comfort has been his wife, Ashley, who has helped him to eat and take his first steps since the explosion.

The boat damaged beyond repair was a Grady-White Express 330, a white 33-foot saltwater fishing vessel Hoban named the "Island Hopper" and called his “baby.” The thousands of fishing and snorkeling charters he's run from it for the past decade have been his family’s main source of income. A friend has launched an online fundraiser to help cover the Hobans' living expenses as he heals.

“His vessel and all his fishing rods are a loss and his way of making a living is gone,” said Jonathan Witkowski of Palm City, Tim’s friend for more than 20 years. “I just felt bad."

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Distinguished by a full red beard and a bright smile, Hoban grew up boating in Jupiter and The Bahamas and caught his first fish at 2 years old. Friends describe him as kind, generous and easygoing. Witkowski said Hoban loaded up his boat full of supplies and took at least four trips to the Bahamas when Hurricane Dorian struck the islands in 2019.

As is part of his daily routine, Hoban docked at Lott Brothers early that Saturday to buy ice and bait. There, he tried to replace a broken float switch on his boat, a part which detects water in its bilge tank.

As he flicked a lighter to apply a "heat shrink" connector to cover and protect the switch's electrical wires while they are heated, fuel vapors built up below the cabin, and the boat exploded. Hoban caught fire along with it.

A deckhand from Lott Brothers heard him as he fell into the water and threw Hoban a life ring. Hoban said he swam, grabbed onto barnacles and pulled himself onto the dock with parts of his skin and clothes singed off. He then found a water hose and sprayed himself down while screaming. When paramedics arrived to take Hoban to St. Mary’s Medical Center in an ambulance, Hoban immediately told them to call his wife and tell her where he was bound.

“I love my wife and I’m so sad she almost lost me,” Hoban said. “I was on fire and all I could think was, ‘I have to get out of here so I can live.’ ”

Ashley was driving to Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach to meet Hoban with breakfast when the boat exploded. Her heart sank when she saw smoke coming from the marina behind Lott Brothers and the business surrounded by fire trucks. She said she knew it was him and drove straight to St. Mary’s after speaking with a police officer at the site.

“My hands were shaking so badly that the officer made me promise I wouldn’t drive like a maniac,” said Ashley Hoban, 44, who grew up in Texas and works with Hoban on the boat. “He said, ‘You have to be there for your husband, so don’t hurt yourself in the process.’ I focused on that.”

At St. Mary’s, doctors gave Hoban a CT scan to check for internal damage and, in the first bit of good news, didn't find any. They then put him on antibiotics and other medication and inserted a breathing tube before flying him 70 miles south to Jackson Memorial in a helicopter a few hours later.

Boat fires may be more common than people realize. The U.S. Coast Guard counted 232 of them nationwide in 2022, with most of them fuel-related explosions, leading to 128 injuries and five deaths.

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Amid his pain, Hoban has already cleared a critical hurdle in his recovery: He survived the first week after the fire.

That first week is the most critical time for patients with significant burns, said Dr. Robert Borrego, the medical director at St. Mary's trauma center. It's the time when the risk of infection — and of mortality — are at their highest. Skin protects the body from bacteria, and infected skin can lead to fatal conditions such as sepsis.

The skin grafting that Hoban was receiving last week should reduce that risk.

Borrego called grafts “the key” for patients with substantial burns because it helps the wounds to heal and reduces the patient's pain. Still, it is possible the grafted areas and burned skin won't function exactly like they did before, potentially leaving burn patients with mobility issues.

“One of the worst areas for burns are the hands, because we all use our hands for our livelihoods,” Borrego said. “A lot of challenges follow (patients) as far as being able to reuse their hands.”

Burn victims also feel pain while damaged nerve endings regenerate. Second and third-degree burns can impair them to the point where people can lose feeling in some areas completely. The pain that a patient feels while nerve endings regenerate is often part of the path to healing, Borrego said.

Many people with significant burns are looking at recovery time from around six months to one year to “go back to normal,” Borrego said.

Borrego said people with mostly second-degree burns who spend lots of time aboard boats should be able to get back on the water once they heal. They just need to protect their skin from the sun as much as possible.

He said burn patients are susceptible to Marjolin ulcers, a type of cancer that can occur in burned skin and happens to patients who don't get skin grafts, so the damaged skin constantly tries to remodel.

After the captain goes home from the hospital, he will get physical therapy and visit a hospital once a week for wound care for at least several months, Ashley Hoban said. Burn patients can relearn how to pick things up, apply pressure and walk in physical therapy, which some may attend for years after the incident.

As Hoban copes with his pain, he realizes the sizable challenge ahead if he were to return to the water. After recovery, he would still need the money to buy a new boat. The one that exploded was from a salvage lot, and he spent nine months remodeling it.

"I bought that boat cheap and put all my heart into sanding it, gel-coating it, fixing its thru-holes and putting new power on it," Hoban said. "I don't have the energy to do that now. I love being a captain and I'm really good at it, but I just can't even walk right now."

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Hoban's friends know him to have a resilient spirit and are certain it will help him as he rallies after the fire.

Witkowski has witnessed it personally. Hoban and Ashley would pick up bartending and food delivery shifts at Stadium Grill in Jupiter — which Witkowski's family owns — when charters were slow to make ends meet. Witkowski remembers moments like these as he watches Hoban deal with the darkest moments of his life.

"Tim just has a real love for the water and gets very enthusiastic about it," Witkowski said. "When you go fishing with him, he gets really hyped up. When you leave, you feel like you're more than a client. You're like a friend or family to him. "

"He’s a good guy with a good heart."

Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com . Support local journalism: Subscribe today .

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: 'I have to get out of here so I can live': Captain survives explosion; will he boat again?