A Mt. Juliet man working on a luxury yacht in the British Virgin Islands helped rescued 10 other people after a fire broke out in the engineering room.
The fire happened Monday afternoon four miles off the coast of Scrub Island.
Carson Reddick, 23, was second in command of the yacht.
Crew members and passengers were traveling from Virgin Gorda Anchorage to Scrub Island in the British Virgin Islands when a crew member noticed an engine light went out.
"I was asked to go check the engine room and sure enough there was an engine room fire," Reddick recalled.
Reddick and his crew members grabbed safety vests and told passengers to get off the yacht. He was able to pull people into a smaller boat that attached to the yacht.
"We were very, very lucky to have one of those so we didn't have to deploy a lifecraft. We just hopped on the center console and got out," he said.
"Thank God everything happened so streamlined. Of the crew, we all trained for this we just hope it never happens," he said.
"I scooped everyone out of the water, we asked the British Coast Guard to let us go to Scrub Island and they gave us clearance for that," he said.
Once on land, staff members from Scrub Island Marina and Resort accommodated the group with clothes from the gift shop and gave them rooms to stay in for a few nights. They waited to get clearance from the United States Customs before traveling to St. Thomas located in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
"I look back at it now, it is chilling, doesn't really frightened me. I don't mean to sound macho, we're just very thankful that everyone got off safely," he said.
He said he couldn't have saved everyone without the help of his crew members.
"All the crew members that work in that maritime industry are required to take fire courses and survival courses. I have to tell you, since I was working on the water since I was 18, I've seen one other boat on fire. This just never happens," he said.
On Thursday, Reddick returned to on U.S. soil in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
He's confident he'll be back out on the water in no time although he's out of a job for now.
"If I didn't make them (two radio calls) at the time that I did, 10 people would've burned up. I'm very honored to be called a hero and I guess I feel like one but I'm just really glad that I was able to get everyone out of the water and get them off that boat before they burned up," he said.
Reddick graduated Mt. Juliet High School and studied at the University of Tennessee until his junior year. He later went on to study at the Champan School of Seamanship.
