A young man is sharing how a night on Lake Travis quickly turned into a dangerous situation.
BUDA, Texas — On Saturday, April 26, 16-year-old Mathew Hellums remembers doing maintenance on the family boat at the South Shore Marina on Lake Travis with his parents when the unthinkable happened: a boat fire.
“My vision was just completely covered in orange,” Hellums said.
While Hellums said he and his dad, Robby, did not end up in the water, they both saw his mom, Earlita, floating. Still feeling the heat of the fire, Hellums jumped in to save his mother.
“This is my mom – I need to get her out,” Hellums recalled. “She helps me all the time. I need to do this one thing for her right now.”
Making sure his mom stayed conscious, Hellums helped her back to shore. He said the family waited there for 50 minutes so first responders could arrive to help.
“A lake otter swam up to us,” Hellums said. “I truly believe that all three of us had like, guardian angels or something.”
According to a Travis County spokesperson, the fire was the result of a fuel leak in a motor yacht, which “resulted in an explosion.”
While Hellums and his dad are healing from second and third-degree burns, his mom remains in the hospital with broken legs.
There is a long road to recovery, but Hellums said he is grateful for another chance at life.
“I didn’t have to go to an urn and say how my day was,” Hellums said. “It’s best to live today like it’s your last, so I’ve been doing by that, from then, now on.”
KVUE reached out to the Travis County Fire Marshal for more information on the fire. They said a report on the fire is still pending and is expected to be completed soon.
A GoFundMe has been created to help the Hellums family with medical and rehabilitation expenses.