Jon Pearson was walking his dog on the North Idaho Centennial Trail about a mile from Higgens Point on Saturday morning when he heard someone shouting for help.

He looked out on Lake Coeur d'Alene through the trees and saw a man waving his arms on boat on fire, smoke rising up, a few hundred yards from shore.

Pearson watched as several men on a fishing boat sped in quickly from the west and pulled up. The man hopped on board and his rescuers zipped away.

Less than a minute later, the boat was engulfed in flames and black smoke billowed into the air.

"It was really quick," Pearson said.

Coeur d'Alene firefighters and others soon arrived to douse the flames and the charred hull drifted to the shoreline.

Greyson Hoffman, alone on the boat, told The Press he had just left Higgens Point a

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