(WFLA) – Eleven people were injured after a boat exploded in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Memorial Day, the US Coast Guard Southeast announced.

The incident occurred around 5:45 p.m. on Monday near the New River Triangle in Fort Lauderdale. Frank Guzman, public information officer for Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, said the boat was anchored on a sandbar popular with recreational boaters before the explosion.

“It tossed people into the water,” Guzman told Nexstar. “Some voluntarily jumped in, because they were burned.”

Coast Guard vessels are seen collecting debris following an explosion of a boat near Fort Lauderdale on Monday. (USCGSoutheast via Storyful)

A spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) told Nexstar in an emailed statement that the boat — a 39-foot Sea Ray — was carrying 15 people. After the explosion, nearby boaters were among the first to respond to the victims, bringing some to a dock, Guzman said. Another witness picked up a dog that was on the boat at the time of the explosion.

Officials from the Coast Guard and Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue arrived to administer aid and help facilitate the transfer 11 of the injured boaters to a local hospital. Two children were among those injured.

“Many of them, if not all of them, had some sort of burns,” Guzman told Nexstar. “Those two children do have significant burns to a large percentage of their body.”

Ten of the victims were transferred to a burn unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. One of the injured boaters was discharged on Monday night.

The local fire marshal’s office, along with the FWC, is investigating the incident. Guzman said the cause of the expulsion is still unclear, but it’s believed to be a “flash fire,” meaning an ignition of vapors that combusted and quickly burned out. There was no sustained fire on the boat, Guzman said.

“No further information is available at this time,” a spokesperson for the FWC told Nexstar on Tuesday morning.