Colcord Survivors recall terror of burning boat

Picture of the search for missing a Oklahoma teen and two adults. Courtesy: KXTV - Sacramento, California OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- After jumping off the burning sailboat that

Thursday, March 23rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Picture of the search for missing a Oklahoma teen and two adults. Courtesy: KXTV - Sacramento, California

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- After jumping off the burning sailboat that had provided him and four young friends a brief spring-break idyll, 18-year-old John Blackfox was struggling to stay afloat in chilly Sacramento River Delta waters.

The wind was churning the waters and Blackfox lost his sense of direction. It seemed to him that he had spent 45 minutes in the water when he shouted, "No!" then took a breath and let himself sink, resigned to drowning.

But after he went under, he saw a light and made one final attempt to save himself.

"I knew I was going to die. I gave up. But then I saw a light. So I gave everything I had to get to the surface one more time. I heard somebody say, `Grab this,' and I stuck my hand out of the water. I felt a pipe and grabbed it," he told the Contra Costa Times on Wednesday, a day after his ordeal.

Blackfox was lucky, as were three of his friends and the fatherof one of them. They survived their time in the water, after their 37-foot fishing boat caught fire about 2 a.m. Tuesday off the Concord waterfront.

Three others were not so lucky. Wilburn and Barbara Thompson of Turlock, both in their 50s, and Keith Washington, 16, of Colcord, Okla., remained missing Wednesday evening.

Blackfox and two of his friends, James Mitchell and Cecil Sixkiller, both 16, spoke at Oakland International Airport, where they caught a plane to fly home to rural Oklahoma.

Their fishing trip started well Monday. But the fast-moving fire that broke out while they were sleeping, apparently killed their friend Keith, a football player and joker whose name was tattooed across his belly.

"I've never lost one of my best friends," said Blackfox, who hadn't slept for more than a day and was vomiting sea water about every 30 minutes.

The other two survivors remained in California. James Payton, 17, was with his father, Elmer Payton, 57, both of Colcord, in a Sacramento hospital where the elder Payton was recovering from burns.

Sixkiller said the fire blocked the boaters' path to a pair of extinguishers near the stern. Some of the boys tried in vain to smother the blaze with sleeping bags, but they simply added fuel to the fire.

Everyone jumped from the boat, including those now missing, the boys said. They used a fender as a makeshift life preserver, trying to kick toward shore. The fire was spotted by Dan Kiernan, 48, who was doing some late-night fishing with his girlfriend, Debbie Goesch, 38. They sped almost a mile to the fire, and began plucking people from the water.

The victims were so cold and tired that they couldn't help pull themselves aboard. Goesch said she saw Washington go under the water. Once they go tthe five people on the boat, Kiernan turned off his boat and the couple yelled for any other survivors. "We hollered for a long time," Goesch said.