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[webfact]

Four dead, 30 missing as fire sinks California dive boat - U.S. Coast Guard

By Omar Younis

 

Ventura County Fire Department personnel respond to a boat fire on a 75-foot (23-meter) vessel off Santa Cruz Island, California, U.S. September 2, 2019. Ventura County Fire Department/Handout via REUTERS.

 

OXNARD, Calif. (Reuters) - Four bodies were recovered on Monday by rescuers searching for 34 people missing after a pre-dawn fire sank a scuba diving boat off a Southern California island, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said.

 

No other information was immediately available about the genders, identities or the conditions of the recovered bodies, Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Barney said by phone.

 

The search for the missing was still under way, he said.

 

Five crew members were rescued earlier by a "good Samaritan pleasure craft" after a distress call was reported at 3:15 a.m. local time as the 75-foot (23-meter) vessel burned about 20 yards (18 meters) off of Santa Cruz Island, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

 

"The crew was already awake and on the bridge and jumped off," Coast Guard Captain Monica Rochester told a news conference at Oxnard. The passengers were all asleep below decks, according to information the Coast Guard received, Rochester said.

 

At least 29 people were missing and five crew members were rescued after a fire erupted aboard a commercial boat off the coast of Southern California, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday, while local media outlets said some deaths were reported by a fire department official. Chris Dignam has more.

 

U.S. Representative Julia Brownley, a Democrat whose district includes Ventura County, told reporters in Oxnard: "They have determined that there are some bodies there. Devastating and tragic, and we still are hoping that there could still be some survivors.”

 

PROPANE EXPLOSION

James Kohl, brother of one of the missing passengers, told KTLA TV in Los Angeles he was told there was a propane gas explosion on board, but Rochester said she could not confirm that.

 

Asked about that, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Commander Matthew Kroll told CNN the cause of the fire was still undetermined. "It happened quickly enough so many people could not get off," he added.

 

An image posted by the VCFD shows the vessel engulfed in flames. It sank in 64 feet (20 meters) of water just 20 yards off the Santa Cruz shore with just the tip of its bow showing, the Coast Guard said.

 

Local media reported foggy conditions along the southern California coast.

 

Of the five persons rescued near the coast of Santa Barbara, at least one had minor injuries, the Coast Guard said.

 

The diving boat was operated by Worldwide Diving Adventures, a Santa Barbara excursion firm which said on its website the Conception was on a three-day excursion to the Channel Islands, and was due back in Santa Barbara at 5 p.m. Pacific time on Monday.

 

If there are fatalities, a coroner's inquest will be conducted by Santa Barbara officials, county Sheriff's Office spokesman Lieutenant Eric Rainey said by phone.

 

Rainey said he could not confirm any fatalities but said he presumed there were some deaths because of "the extent of the fire and the fact that I think the rescued individuals told those rescuers that there were people on board that didn’t make it off the boat.”

 

"I’m crossing my fingers that there may be people on the shore," he added.

 

The Red Cross of Central California said it was will open a reunification centre in Santa Barbara. “We have trained mental health and spiritual care volunteers onsite for anyone who needs support,” it said on Twitter.

 

(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York and Bill Tarrant in Los Angeles; Editing by David Gregorio and Nick Zieminski)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-09-03

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[Skallywag]

Compressed flammable gasses (propane) never a good idea on a boat.  

No one would keep a propane tank inside a house they live in, always wondered why it is allowed on boats. 

Conflicting safety standards 

RIP 

 

 

[Tug]

Major bummer I’m wondering if the hp air bank went with the propane that vessel carried a valid coi inspected with more than one way to exit makes me think something incapacitated the folks below decks in mass major bummer rip to all lost and condolences to the bereaved 

[2long]

44 minutes ago, Skallywag said:

Compressed flammable gasses (propane) never a good idea on a boat.  

No one would keep a propane tank inside a house they live in, always wondered why it is allowed on boats. 

Conflicting safety standards 

RIP 

 

 

A brother of a missing passenger 'was told that there was a propane gas explosion on board' doesn't mean that there was. In any case, the BBC reports that the boat and its captain were fully in compliance, so it's better to wait for the official report. At least I would trust the Americans to do a proper investigation compared to what one would expect here in LOS.

[neeray]

10 minutes ago, 2long said:

A brother of a missing passenger 'was told that there was a propane gas explosion on board' doesn't mean that there was. In any case, the BBC reports that the boat and its captain were fully in compliance, so it's better to wait for the official report. At least I would trust the Americans to do a proper investigation compared to what one would expect here in LOS.

A horrifying loss of life!

But had it been on Thai waters, oh how the captain and crew, and government and country would have been castigated.

Just goes to show, these holiday tragedies can happen anywhere.

[LomSak27]

Liquefied petroleum gas — generally propane in the United States — is the most convenient cooking fuel for a boat.

 

On a boat, LPG is also, by far, the most dangerous cooking fuel. Propane and butane are heavier than air, so they "spill" like water. Leaking propane in a house falls to the floor, usually dispersing harmlessly on air currents, but a boat is like a bowl, and leaking gas accumulates in the bottom of it. One spark and KA-BOOM! Bits of boat rain down like a ticker-tape parade

 

You can tell serious boaters because they have LPG snooper gear, (or even they use alcohol for cooking fuel), and or the gas canister is housed “outside” the main cabin They also have gauges for CO2 and carbon monoxide. If a boat is water tight, it also means air tight, which brings on another set of problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by LomSak27

[robblok]

4 minutes ago, neeray said:

A horrifying loss of life!

But had it been on Thai waters, oh how the captain and crew, and government and country would have been castigated.

Just goes to show, these holiday tragedies can happen anywhere.

Yep.. not in Thailand... so no Thai bashing.. just people here saying lets wait for the investigation. What a difference in attitude... its as if some people jump on every opportunity to bash Thais but when something happens in a Western country they shut up.

 

Tragedies can happen anywhere you made a good point about that. Accidents do happen and nothing is 100% safe just a fact of life. RIP for the people involved.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, Skallywag said:

Compressed flammable gasses (propane) never a good idea on a boat.  

No one would keep a propane tank inside a house they live in, always wondered why it is allowed on boats. 

Conflicting safety standards 

RIP 

 

 

Are there any good alternatives for propane?

[Tug]

48 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Are there any good alternatives for propane?

An inspected vessel as this one was has to carry it in a way that the gas cannot become trapped below decks so who knows she also carried an hp air bank for jamming scuba bottles there is a tremendous amount of energy there as well a major bummer

[Basil B]

Crew awake a 3 in the morning, probably still filling air bottles, apart from probably LPG there would probably be some oxygen bottles and enriched air (air with extra O²) that would make the situation a lot worse.

[webfact]

At least eight dead from California boat fire, 26 missing

By Omar Younis

 

A 75-foot (23-meter) vessel burns during a rescue operation off Santa Cruz Island, California, U.S. September 2, 2019. Santa Barbara County Fire Department/Handout via REUTERS.

 

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (Reuters) - Eight people were confirmed dead from a predawn fire that sank a boat off a Southern California island and 26 others who were on the scuba diving vessel were missing, a local sheriff said.

 

The fire broke out aboard the Conception, a 75-foot (23-metre) boat, at about 3:15 a.m. while it was moored just off the shore of Santa Cruz Island, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement.

 

Passengers slept in the ship's lower quarters, officials said, while five crew members who were above deck on the bridge escaped.

 

The Coast Guard searched the coastline of Santa Cruz Island for any other possible survivors but had not found anyone, officials said.

 

"This isn't a day that we wanted to wake up to for Labor Day and it's a very tragic event, Coast Guard Captain Monica Rochester told a news conference.

 

"We will search all the way through the night into the morning but I think we all should be prepared to move into the worst outcome," she said.

 

Four bodies were recovered from the area and rescue divers found another four bodies on the ocean floor near the sunken vessel, which lies upside down under more than 60 feet (18 metres) of water, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters.

 

"Fire is the scourge of any ship," Brown said, and to be in a remote location, asleep and then have a fire spread very quickly, "you couldn't ask for a worse situation."

 

The four bodies that were recovered will have to be identified through DNA samples, Brown said.

 

The Conception, which launched in 1981, embarked for California's Channel Islands on Saturday morning with 39 people on board. Excluding the five survivors and the eight people confirmed dead, search teams are looking for 26 people who were on the Conception, Brown said.

 

Authorities are trying to determine the best way to recover the sunken vessel, including the possibility of towing it to shore, he added.

 

'TOTALLY ENGULFED'

The surviving crew members sought refuge on a fishing boat moored a few hundred feet away, banging on the side to wake up Bob Hansen and his wife, who were sleeping onboard.

 

"When we looked out, the other boat was totally engulfed in flames, from stem to stern," Hansen said in an interview with the New York Times. "There were these explosions every few beats. You can't prepare yourself for that. It was horrendous."

 

Scuba or propane tanks on the Conception may have exploded in the fire, but that had not been confirmed, Brown said, adding it was unclear if there was an initial explosion that caused the fire.

 

After borrowing clothes from the Hansens, some crew members headed back towards the Conception to look for survivors without luck, Hansen said.

 

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who represents California, called for an investigation.

 

"It's inconceivable that with all the safety regulations we have in place today, a fire on a boat can lead to the loss of life we saw this morning," she said in a statement. "And we need to understand exactly how the crew was trained and, if they were awake and above-deck, why they were unable to alert or help rescue passengers."

 

Investigators said a single mayday call came from the boat reporting the fire.

 

"It happened quickly enough so many people could not get off," U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Matthew Kroll told CNN.

 

The diving boat was chartered by Worldwide Diving Adventures, a Santa Barbara, California, excursion firm. It said on its website that the Conception was on a three-day excursion to the Channel Islands, and was due back in Santa Barbara at 5 p.m. on Monday.

 

The boat's owner, Truth Aquatics, referred queries about the accident to a joint media centre. "This is still an ongoing search and rescue," it said.

 

(Reporting by Omar Younis; Additional reporting by Peter Szekely and Jonathan Allen in New York and Alex Dobuzinskis and Bill Tarrant in Los Angeles; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-09-03

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[Redline]

4 hours ago, robblok said:

Yep.. not in Thailand... so no Thai bashing.. just people here saying lets wait for the investigation. What a difference in attitude... its as if some people jump on every opportunity to bash Thais but when something happens in a Western country they shut up.

 

Tragedies can happen anywhere you made a good point about that. Accidents do happen and nothing is 100% safe just a fact of life. RIP for the people involved.

They don’t certify or inspect in Thailand 

[Old Croc]

Passengers all sleep in the bowels of the vessel below the galley. One narrow stairway the only escape. A death trap in this worse case scenario.

 

[PETERTHEEATER]

7 hours ago, Tug said:

Major bummer I’m wondering if the hp air bank went with the propane that vessel carried a valid coi inspected with more than one way to exit makes me think something incapacitated the folks below decks in mass major bummer rip to all lost and condolences to the bereaved 

What is 'a major bummer rip'? This US slang defeats me.

[timendres]

"Major Bummer" -- very sad, not good

"rip" -- RIP - Rest In Peace

[gunderhill]

7 hours ago, Skallywag said:

No one would keep a propane tank inside a house they live in

In the UK used to be able to get calor  gas  heaters with the tank inside the appliance for indoor  use, well that's  when I was  first at work in 1981 remember sitting  huddled  round it in the office, gives me the shivers now remembering the cold.

[Dap]

20 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

What is 'a major bummer rip'? This US slang defeats me.

... "makes me think something incapacitated the folks below decks in mass major bummer rip to all lost"

Could be ... makes me think something incapacitated the folks below decks    en masse. Major bummer! RIP (Rest In Peace) to all lost.

[Pedrogaz]

So...less people dying with each newsflash.

[rwill]

The last update I saw was 25 dead and 8 still missing.  All 5 crew members were on the deck and jumped off and survived.  All the passengers were below deck sleeping.

[stevenl]

9 hours ago, Tug said:

An inspected vessel as this one was has to carry it in a way that the gas cannot become trapped below decks so who knows she also carried an hp air bank for jamming scuba bottles there is a tremendous amount of energy there as well a major bummer

Thanks, but not related to my comment.

[stevenl]

8 hours ago, Basil B said:

Crew awake a 3 in the morning, probably still filling air bottles, apart from probably LPG there would probably be some oxygen bottles and enriched air (air with extra O²) that would make the situation a lot worse.

Unlikely they would still be filling. Also unlikely they would have oxygen bottles with filling, partial blending, the only filling method for which there would be oxygen bottles, is a very old fashioned method hardly ever used anymore.

[Tug]

6 hours ago, Old Croc said:

Passengers all sleep in the bowels of the vessel below the galley. One narrow stairway the only escape. A death trap in this worse case scenario.

 

No sir there is always 2 exits on an inspected vessel otherwise she isent allowed to operate my (guess) is the fire sucked up the oxygen incapacitating the passengers who knows at this point just a major tragedy (and to the survivors)as well

[Fred white]

12 hours ago, LomSak27 said:

Liquefied petroleum gas — generally propane in the United States — is the most convenient cooking fuel for a boat.

 

On a boat, LPG is also, by far, the most dangerous cooking fuel. Propane and butane are heavier than air, so they "spill" like water. Leaking propane in a house falls to the floor, usually dispersing harmlessly on air currents, but a boat is like a bowl, and leaking gas accumulates in the bottom of it. One spark and KA-BOOM! Bits of boat rain down like a ticker-tape parade

 

You can tell serious boaters because they have LPG snooper gear, (or even they use alcohol for cooking fuel), and or the gas canister is housed “outside” the main cabin They also have gauges for CO2 and carbon monoxide. If a boat is water tight, it also means air tight, which brings on another set of problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just because it's water tight don't mean it's air tight a row boat has a water tight hull but it's not air tight

[Fred white]

8 hours ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

What is 'a major bummer rip'? This US slang defeats me.

Must be California slang I'm from GA and never heard it

[Jingthing]

Must be California slang I'm from GA and never heard it

Not really. Bummer is national but rather dated and passe. RIP as in rest in peace is not slang at all.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[usviphotography]

2 hours ago, Tug said:

No sir there is always 2 exits on an inspected vessel otherwise she isent allowed to operate my (guess) is the fire sucked up the oxygen incapacitating the passengers who knows at this point just a major tragedy (and to the survivors)as well

The escape hatch would be relatively useless in this scenario. Pitch dark cabin full of smoke- nobody is going to find that escape hatch. 

[NanLaew]

15 hours ago, robblok said:

Yep.. not in Thailand... so no Thai bashing.. just people here saying lets wait for the investigation. What a difference in attitude... its as if some people jump on every opportunity to bash Thais but when something happens in a Western country they shut up.

 

Tragedies can happen anywhere you made a good point about that. Accidents do happen and nothing is 100% safe just a fact of life. RIP for the people involved.

Only the crew members survived?

 

I'll have a bash at that.

[impulse]

32 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Only the crew members survived?

 

I'll have a bash at that.

 

At first look, that seems suspicious.  But given that the guest sleeping accommodations were downstairs, and the prevalence of the me-too movement, the crew was probably forbidden from being down there at 3:00 AM.  If it was, in fact, an explosion below, the crew staying topside would have been the only ones in a position to escape.

 

I'll leave it to the investigation to see if they could have saved anyone, but seeing the molten metal boat in those photos makes it doubtful in my mind.

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by impulse

[Jingthing]

24 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

At first look, that seems suspicious.  But given that the guest sleeping accommodations were downstairs, and the prevalence of the me-too movement, the crew was probably forbidden from being down there at 3:00 AM.  If it was, in fact, an explosion below, the crew staying topside would have been the only ones in a position to escape.

 

I'll leave it to the investigation to see if they could have saved anyone, but seeing the molten metal boat in those photos makes it doubtful in my mind.

 

Mentioning the "me-too movement" in the context of this horrible tragedy is both irrelevant and in incredibly poor taste. 

[impulse]

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Mentioning the "me-too movement" in the context of this horrible tragedy is both irrelevant and in incredibly poor taste. 

 

Sorry you feel that way, but there are unintended consequences to that phenomena.  This may (or may not) be one of them.