At least 25 confirmed dead in boat fire in California
At least 25 people were confirmed dead and nine
others still missing after a tragic boat fire early Monday near an island off
the Southern California coast.
The dive-boat Conception, far out to sea in the
middle of the night, became fully engulfed in flames as 30 passengers on a recreational
scuba diving trip slept below deck.
“You couldn’t ask for a worse situation,” Santa
Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a Monday news conference.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Kroll says at least 25
people on a recreational scuba-diving trip died and the search will continue
through the night for the nine others still missing. He says five others have
been found but not recovered due to unsafe conditions under the boat, which
sank in about 60 feet (18 meters) of water. Kroll that says these numbers are
based on initial reports and authorities are awaiting final counts from the
autopsies.
Five crew members sleeping on the top deck jumped
off and took a dinghy to safety. Two had minor injuries.
Meanwhile, authorities opened a family assistance
center where counseling was being provided to relatives of those onboard. None
of their names were immediately released.
The missing and dead were among 39 passengers and
crew who had departed Santa Barbara’s Channel Islands Harbor on Saturday aboard
the boat Conception for a Labor Day weekend scuba-diving trip.
A person making a radio distress call to the Coast
Guard from a dive boat on fire off California said that he couldn't breathe and
there were people trapped on board.
(Sept., 2)
The fire broke out about 3 a.m. as the Conception
was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest
of Los Angeles. The crew appeared to quickly call for help.
“The call was garbled, it was not that clear, but we
were able to get some information out of it to send vessels,” said Coast Guard
Petty Officer Mark Barney.
Capt. Paul Amaral of the vessel assistance company
TowBoatUS also launched a fast boat from Ventura Harbor, but it was some 30
miles (48 kilometers) away. By the time it got there around 5 a.m. a Coast
Guard helicopter and a fireboat were on scene.
Amaral said he first searched the water and
shoreline, then turned back to the Conception, which was adrift and going
aground. He attached a line and pulled it into deeper water where the fireboats
could reach.
“We launched that boat knowing that the vessel was
on fire, lots of people aboard,” he told The Associated Press.
The five crew members, meanwhile, had taken their
dingy to a private fishing boat, The Grape Escape, that was anchored near the
north shore of Santa Cruz Island.
That boat’s owners, Bob and Shirley Hansen, told The
New York Times they were asleep when they heard pounding on the side of their
60-foot (18-meter) vessel about 3:30 a.m. and discovered the frightened crew
members.
“When we looked out, the other boat was totally
engulfed in flames, from stem to stern,” Hansen said. “I could see the fire
coming through holes on the side of the boat. There were these explosions every
few beats. You can’t prepare yourself for that. It was horrendous.”
Hansen said two of the crew members went back toward
the Conception looking for survivors but found no one.
Four bodies had injuries consistent with drowning,
Kroll said.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the other bodies
that have been found might be retrieved or when divers could search the boat
for others.
“It’s upside down in relatively shallow water with
receding tides that are moving it around,” Brown said. Investigators have not
yet determined a cause for the fire.
The 75-foot (23-meter) Conception was on a three-day
excursion to the chain of rugged, wind-swept isles that form Channel Islands
National Park in the Pacific Ocean west of Los Angeles. The fire broke out as
the boat sat anchored in Platt’s Harbor off Santa Cruz Island.
The Conception, based in Santa Barbara Harbor on the
mainland, was owned by Santa Barbara-based Truth Aquatics, founded in 1974. A
memorial outside Truth Aquatics in the Santa Barbara Harbor grew Monday night
as mourners came to pay their respects.
Dave Reid, who runs an underwater camera
manufacturing business with his wife, Terry Schuller, and has traveled on the
Conception and two other boats in Truth Aquatics’ fleet, said he considered all
three among the best and safest.
“When you see the boats they are always immaculate,”
he said. “I wouldn’t hesitate at all to go on one again. Of all the boat
companies, that would be one of the ones I wouldn’t think this would happen
to.”
His wife said Truth Aquatics crews have always been
meticulous in going over safety instructions at the beginning of every trip
she’s been on.
“They tell you where the life jackets are, how to
put them on ... the exits, where the fire extinguishers are, on every single
trip,” said Schuller. “They are the best, the absolute best.”
Both said the sleeping area is comfortable but
tight, however, with bunk beds stacked next to one another on the lowest deck.
Coming up to the top deck to get off requires navigating a narrow stairway with
only one exit.
If the fire was fast-moving, Reid said, it’s very
likely divers couldn’t escape and the crew couldn’t get to them.
Coast Guard records show all safety violations from
the last five years were quickly addressed by the boat’s owners. Some safety
violations were related to fire safety. A 2016 inspection resulted in owners
replacing the heat detector in the galley and one in 2014 cited a leaky fire
hose.
The Conception was chartered by Worldwide Diving
Adventures, which says on its website that it has been taking divers on such
expeditions since the 1970s.
Andy Taylor, owner of Blue Water Hunter Dive Shop in
Santa Barbara, said he discussed dive conditions with several people Friday as
they were buying some last-minute things before boarding the Conception. Taylor
said he often sends divers to Truth Aquatics for trips and he has friends who
have crewed on the Conception.
He said he was on the phone all day Monday as
friends checked to make sure he wasn’t on the boat.
“Right now it’s a big question of who was on there
and who wasn’t,” he said. “I’m scared to see the list of names, honestly.”
