Search To Be Suspended For Two Missing Firefighters

JACKSONVILLE, FL — The search for two firefighters who launched their 24-foot boat from Florida’s Atlantic coast last Friday and never returned will officially end at sundown Thursday evening.

U.S. Coast Guard Mark Vlaun told reporters during a news conference that the search area has grown to the point where there is no longer any reasonable degree of success of finding Brian McCluney and Justin Walker. Projections of tidal patterns have stretched north to as far as New England in the six days since the boat left Florida.

McCluney, a member of the Jacksonville, fire department, and Walker, a master technician for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, left early on Friday from Port Canaveral to go fishing, and they were set to return in the afternoon. They have not been seen since.

McCluney’s fish tackle bag was found several days into the search, but no other items have been found, despite having hundreds of volunteers in boats and planes out looking for the two men.