GUILTY CA - Boat fire near Santa Cruz Island; 34 missing, Sept 2019 *captain charged*

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There will be a little more anxiety than normal, of course. The crew briefings, already thorough, will cover a bit more about fire safety and what to do in the event of an emergency. Other dive operations, in California and elsewhere around the world, will likely change their own protocols in some way, learning lessons from the accident.
That is the key to any accident response. You break down what happened and find ways to improve and learn from it.

The loss of the M/V Conception and her passengers and crew is devastating. Everyone in the diving community feels the pain of the loss. Those were our friends, colleagues and, at the very least, kindred spirits. There will be memorials and remembrances of the loss as everyone attempts to come to grips with the tragedy.
The diving world tries to come to grips with devastating fire (Opinion) - CNN
 
A Catholic priest working at the center set up for relatives of people missing and presumed dead in the California scuba diving boat fire says he's spoken with 15 to 20 relatives of those who were aboard.

Father Pedro Lopez of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Santa Barbara said Tuesday that he and other clergy members are trying to comfort the relatives and make sure they don't spend time alone.

Lopez says "it's just hard for them to process all of this."
The Latest: Clergy try to comfort relatives of the missing
 
He also feels like it could easily have been him and his friends dead or missing.

"I am just shocked at the numbers involved. We had similar numbers on our trip. It is very easy to put ourselves in their place,” he said.

While the June trip was Pointon’s first excursion aboard the Conception, he said the Sierra Club has been booking tours on that boat for a decade.

Pointon said on his trip there were seven crew members: the captain, first and second mates, two boat hands and two kitchen staffers. The cooks slept with the passengers, the crew slept on the top deck in the wheel house.
Man's Diagram Helps Explain Deadly Channel Islands Boat Fire
 
Hi everyone. I am greatly disturbed by this tragedy - not because I am a scuba diver (never did that) but because I am horrified by the thought that there was pretty much no way for these passengers to escape as it sounds as though both escape routes were blocked by fire.

Years ago, I worked as a copy director in a retail department store in Knoxville, TN. The advertising department was in the main store's basement. Most of us worked in a very large room with no windows. The back of the room held a giant merchandise closet. There was only one entrance or exit - and it was right beside the entrance to the typesetting room, filled with machinery and chemicals.

I was asked to join the store's safety committee, and the first thing I brought up was my concern about the one entrance/exit. "What happened if there was a fire in the typesetting room and that exit was blocked?" Within a month, store personal created a back exit to the room. It wasn't ideal - one had to enter the merchandise closet to get out the exit and it exited into someone's office - but it was better than no exit and at least we would have a chance of escape.

It sounds as though this ship had 2 exits to the sleeping area -one, the staircase that led to the galley; the other, some sort of opening in the ceiling that led to another room on the same level as the galley. That alternate exit wasn't perfect. What would have been perfect were some sort of portholes so they could escape into the water.

My initial questions about this disaster are:
— Were the passengers told about this other exit? (In interviews by the media with previous passengers, some said they were told about it, others said they were not)
— Was the fire blocking both the main staircase and the other exit?
— Were the crew members all asleep when the fire started or was there supposed to be a night watch?
— How bad were the flames/fire when it was first noticed?
— Were there any smoke alarms operative where the passengers slept?

I don't know what the regulations are for watercraft such as The Conception. I do know that I would have been hesitant to stay overnight in such a sleeping situation. I am very safety conscious and am one of those people who seek out emergency exits wherever I go (movie theatres, restaurants, bars, etc.). In fact, I was once in a movie theatre when a knife fight started and my family and I had to run out the emergency exit!

Unfortunately, these days we all must be aware of our surroundings at all times. :o(
 
— Was the fire blocking both the main staircase and the other exit?
I just saw someone from the coast guard say on CNN that it does look like both the main staircase and the escape hatch were blocked by fire. :(
I agree with you that probably their only chance would have been some sort of porthole into the water. Ugh.
 
Hi everyone. I am greatly disturbed by this tragedy - not because I am a scuba diver (never did that) but because I am horrified by the thought that there was pretty much no way for these passengers to escape as it sounds as though both escape routes were blocked by fire.

Years ago, I worked as a copy director in a retail department store in Knoxville, TN. The advertising department was in the main store's basement. Most of us worked in a very large room with no windows. The back of the room held a giant merchandise closet. There was only one entrance or exit - and it was right beside the entrance to the typesetting room, filled with machinery and chemicals.

I was asked to join the store's safety committee, and the first thing I brought up was my concern about the one entrance/exit. "What happened if there was a fire in the typesetting room and that exit was blocked?" Within a month, store personal created a back exit to the room. It wasn't ideal - one had to enter the merchandise closet to get out the exit and it exited into someone's office - but it was better than no exit and at least we would have a chance of escape.

It sounds as though this ship had 2 exits to the sleeping area -one, the staircase that led to the galley; the other, some sort of opening in the ceiling that led to another room on the same level as the galley. That alternate exit wasn't perfect. What would have been perfect were some sort of portholes so they could escape into the water.

My initial questions about this disaster are:
— Were the passengers told about this other exit? (In interviews by the media with previous passengers, some said they were told about it, others said they were not)
— Was the fire blocking both the main staircase and the other exit?
— Were the crew members all asleep when the fire started or was there supposed to be a night watch?
— How bad were the flames/fire when it was first noticed?
— Were there any smoke alarms operative where the passengers slept?

I don't know what the regulations are for watercraft such as The Conception. I do know that I would have been hesitant to stay overnight in such a sleeping situation. I am very safety conscious and am one of those people who seek out emergency exits wherever I go (movie theatres, restaurants, bars, etc.). In fact, I was once in a movie theatre when a knife fight started and my family and I had to run out the emergency exit!

Unfortunately, these days we all must be aware of our surroundings at all times. :eek:(

I worked in a school (in the early 90s-today) setting with the advent of security issues with shootings and violence. Once I began to learn about issues with active shooters, I became incredibly vigilant about exits wherever I went. I think you are right once you become "woke" you see dangers and solutions around all kinds of situations.

I had read/saw (somewhere here) an interview with the owner about the safety hatch exit. I got the sense that while people may have been informed about the exit there was no practice/drills and that the option would not be optimal in a fire--lots of people climbing a bunk ladder and raising themselves up onto the next deck. With smoke inhalation of hazardous materials and possible victims in the way of the egress, it probably couldn't be seen as a viable escape for all but rather a few who had enough air (smoke rises and people are always cautioned to crawl toward exits in smokey situations) and their wits about them. (MOO)

Unfortunately, the greatest safety advances often occur after great tragedies. I have to wonder if there is active review of boats and safety issues on a regular basis or are most innovations done after an incident or series of incidents occur. I guess I am also wondering if there is someone doing a cost/benefit analysis that the general public is unaware of--- chances of a __________ incident versus cost of major ship changes for a highly unlikely event. With most catastrophes, the response is usually that they had not thought about the X or Y but it seems so illogical that the hatch and the stairs were leading to the one place where a fire would be more likely to break out.
 
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Being trapped in a fire is (like probably all of you, my worst nightmare). For the last 4 years, I spend 8 to 12 days a month on my 41 year old boat. She is mostly teak inside. I rub her wood down with oil, to keep it in good shape.
Her electrical wiring is 41 years old.
I would not want to be on her if a fire were to break out. I do unplug everything before going to bed, and there are 3 fire extinghishers on the boat, two in the cabin with one being right in my berth.

Fortunately, there is a hatch that I can escape from right above my berth.

She is one of the loves of my life, she calms my soul like nothing else (well except for my German Shepherd). Anyway, here's a few pictures of her. ***I think that there are answers that must be provided concerning what happened here. Most of all, why didn't they use fire extingishers to get up those stairs and out of the boat?

AF1QipOE2pwJDGUCf7AvCwvZ6v_m2FCKiMDfaqUbtoez
AF1QipN2I_jo2fjWWSgHCyWcGhlt1er71h8Ysc3NSDde
AF1QipOG8yn8m_VKFQIvgHwam7Is4vBd_dYpGB2fZP2Y
AF1QipNzR6jS5rzIOtkyk5QuWz5KjrjVIDmoOyVI0sja
and one of my GSD
AF1QipOzBxFZM29kbbcM1mJxMTiqJlyp8zGmEFpoKOZd
 
Being trapped in a fire is (like probably all of you, my worst nightmare). For the last 4 years, I spend 8 to 12 days a month on my 41 year old boat. She is mostly teak inside. I rub her wood down with oil, to keep it in good shape.
Her electrical wiring is 41 years old.
I would not want to be on her if a fire were to break out. I do unplug everything before going to bed, and there are 3 fire extinghishers on the boat, two in the cabin with one being right in my berth.

Fortunately, there is a hatch that I can escape from right above my berth.

She is one of the loves of my life, she calms my soul like nothing else (well except for my German Shepherd). Anyway, here's a few pictures of her. ***I think that there are answers that must be provided concerning what happened here. Most of all, why didn't they use fire extingishers to get up those stairs and out of the boat?

AF1QipOE2pwJDGUCf7AvCwvZ6v_m2FCKiMDfaqUbtoez
AF1QipN2I_jo2fjWWSgHCyWcGhlt1er71h8Ysc3NSDde
AF1QipOG8yn8m_VKFQIvgHwam7Is4vBd_dYpGB2fZP2Y
AF1QipNzR6jS5rzIOtkyk5QuWz5KjrjVIDmoOyVI0sja
and one of my GSD
AF1QipOzBxFZM29kbbcM1mJxMTiqJlyp8zGmEFpoKOZd
OH, OH, don't know why pics didn't show up?
 
Being trapped in a fire is (like probably all of you, my worst nightmare). For the last 4 years, I spend 8 to 12 days a month on my 41 year old boat. She is mostly teak inside. I rub her wood down with oil, to keep it in good shape.
Her electrical wiring is 41 years old.
I would not want to be on her if a fire were to break out. I do unplug everything before going to bed, and there are 3 fire extinghishers on the boat, two in the cabin with one being right in my berth.

Fortunately, there is a hatch that I can escape from right above my berth.

She is one of the loves of my life, she calms my soul like nothing else (well except for my German Shepherd). Anyway, here's a few pictures of her. ***I think that there are answers that must be provided concerning what happened here. Most of all, why didn't they use fire extingishers to get up those stairs and out of the boat?

AF1QipOE2pwJDGUCf7AvCwvZ6v_m2FCKiMDfaqUbtoez
AF1QipN2I_jo2fjWWSgHCyWcGhlt1er71h8Ysc3NSDde
AF1QipOG8yn8m_VKFQIvgHwam7Is4vBd_dYpGB2fZP2Y
AF1QipNzR6jS5rzIOtkyk5QuWz5KjrjVIDmoOyVI0sja
and one of my GSD
AF1QipOzBxFZM29kbbcM1mJxMTiqJlyp8zGmEFpoKOZd
Please repost. I'd love to see your boat.
One thing to keep in mind, if you've ever been in a confined area when a fire starts, you know that in seconds the smoke (because it can't escape) makes visibility impossible and it badly burns the lungs because the heat can't escape either. I was in a trailer that had a sudden electrical fire and it was terrifying. There were literally seconds to get out or be trapped. If the smoke poured into the sleeping area from the galley, just that fast, it may have impossible for the victims to find the exit. It would have been dark since they were sleeping. It would have been total chaos. Ugh!!!
 
Generator Running All Night?
A generator would stay on all night, maybe it overheated? Where is the generator located, near the engine bottom level rear?

17975606-7420969-Conception_reportedly_departed_from_Santa_Barbara_Harbor_on_Frid-a-34_1567472004905.jpg



17975602-7420969-The_dive_boat_has_bunk_space_for_up_to_46_passengers_The_interio-a-15_1567477371409.jpg
@SandyQLS. :). Thanks for your post, pic & diagram.
Re: generator running all night? Maybe and may it was source of the fire. OTOH could night time elec. power requirements be so low that a battery bank might supply what's needed?
IDK.
 
Maybe a generator. Maybe someone was vaping/smoking in their bunk. Maybe it had something to do with the galley or the engine. It's hard to tell. At first, I thought that the crew member who died may have been the male cook and he was in the kitchen. Subsequent media reports seem to suggest it was a female crew member (girlfriend to another crew member) who was asleep below in one of the bunks and the male cook may have survived. We will eventually have more information.
 
David Ono on Twitter
The outline of where that tragic boat fire took place. The dive boat is now on the ocean floor near Santa Cruz Island. 20 bodies have been recovered, 14 are still missing. We’ll have the latest and new video @ABC7
EDkx9QvW4AUfqmF.jpg

3:53 PM - 3 Sep 2019 from California, USA

FOX 11 Los Angeles on Twitter (Video)
U.S. Coast Guard released this video on Tuesday of a Coast Guard Sector San Diego MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew responding to the fatal Conception boat fire off Santa Cruz Island. Rescue crews searched approx. 160-sq. miles over the next 23 hours. More: http://bit.ly/2NQ8pqb
4:11 PM - 3 Sep 2019

[URL="https://twitter.com/HeatherKTVU/status/1169028494371774464"]Heather Holmes on Twitter[/URL]
#UPDATE: Rescue workers give up hope of finding any survivors from that horrific boat fire in Southern California. "It is never an easy decision to suspend search efforts," said @USCG Capt. Monica Rochester. Many of the victims are from #SanJose & #SantaCruz. Such a tragedy.
EDk5N__X4AAIU4N.jpg

4:24 PM - 3 Sep 2019
 
The three sisters — Angela, Nicole and Evan Quitasol — were celebrating their biological father’s birthday with a Labor Day weekend diving adventure around the Channel Islands.

They are believed to be among the 34 people killed when a fire broke out aboard the ship Monday morning.

Evan was a nurse who worked in the emergency department of a Stockton-area hospital. Nicole worked as a bartender in a lounge in Coronado, which allowed her to live near her beloved ocean, said their stepfather, Chris Rosas. “She loved the outdoors, loved animals, loved and lived by the sea,” he said.

Angela was a middle school science teacher with the Lincoln Unified School district in Stockton, Rosas said, and “wonderful with kids.”
Three Stockton Sisters Celebrating Father’s Birthday Feared Dead in Boat Fire
 

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