TITUSVILLE, Fla. — After nearly a week since they were last seen, the active search for missing firefighters Justin Walker and Brian McCluney was suspended at sundown on Thursday.

• Brian McCluney, Justin Walker have been missing for almost a week
• PREVIOUSLY:
  • Coast Guard on Boater Search: "We're at a Race Against Time"
  • Search Ramps Up in St. Augustine For Missing Boaters
  • Massive Search Continues for Missing Port Canaveral Boaters

Walker and McCluney, who is a Navy veteran with survival training, were last seen on Friday as they left Port Canaveral.

During a news conference on Thursday, Coast Guard Capt. Mark Vlaun said that the Coast Guard would suspending the active search at sundown.

"At this point without additional information, we have simply reached the point where our computer modeling and our ability to search at a given location are no longer allowing us to search at any reasonable degree or probability of success," he said. "With that information ... I made the extremely difficult decision today that we will suspend the active search at sundown."

Jacksonville Fire Chief Keith Powers said that his department would also be suspending its active search at sundown.

When the active search ended, it spanned 146,368 miles, an area equivalent to the state of Montana.

Families continuing to search on their own

He said that McCluney's and Walker's families are "heartbroken" over the decision to suspend the active search. However, they are continuing the search on their own off the coast of the Carolinas with the help of pilot Joe Hurston.

"We just don't believe that they are no longer with us," Hurston said when we spoke to him by phone. "We believe that they are still alive and that is what is driving us and motivating us."

McCluney's tackle bag was found about 50 miles off the coast of St. Augustine on Monday. That, plus Hurston's previous experiences with search and rescue, gives him hope.

“I’ve had the success of actually rescuing people who have been lost on the sea when the search ended and we found them and that's a part that is certainly driving me in that matter. I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes,” he said.

While Vlaun called it a diffcult decision to suspend active searching, helicopters and cutters will continue their normal operations.

Hurston and the families, meanwhile, will do the only thing they feel they can — not give up.

“This is just the best thing for them because they feel as if they are really truly with all of their heart doing something,” Hurston said.