Boat fire at Channel Islands in California kills 34 people

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

Turned out that there were criminal charges, though this wasn't initially expected. The 67-year-old captain, Jerry Boylan, was charged via an 1800s federal law which was meant to charge negligent steamboat captains! The utilization of this law in the 21st century is super rare.

Boylan was accused of “misconduct, negligence and inattention” by failing to train his crew, conduct fire drills and have a roving night watchman on the boat when the fire ignited. He was the one who made the panicked call to 911 in the original post, which was at first wrongly attributed to a passenger.

In a similar move to what MGM did after the 2017 Stephen Paddock shooting, the boat owners are suing the victims in federal court in order to avoid being held responsible for any civil damages. I'm not sure how this works, but MGM did the same thing for the same reason. Despite this, 32 families (out of 34 victims) are suing the owners.

The captain pled not guilty in February 2021. Not sure what has happened since.

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/cap...hat-killed-34/

Is it that hard to yell down to the sleeping people and tell them to GTFO ? I assume this happened but surely 1 person could of escaped the death oven? Like no way the crew just bailed and didnt try to tell anyone else to wake up and leave? Or was the fire blocking both exits?

There was only one real exit, plus one fail escape hatch. Both were blocked.

Apparently they were supposed to be actively checking that everything was ok, and weren't. By the time they noticed the fire, it was too late.

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

Captain Jerry Boylan, now 70, sentenced to 4 years in prison.




https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/02/us/ca...ing/index.html

Bottom line is that if shit doesn't feel safe, don't go. Zero chance I would have gone in that claustrophobic box where 34 people are crammed into a room with 1 staircase out.

Boylan was judged guilty because he was the first one off the ship, did not attempt to fight the fire, did not train his crew, and did not require at least one crew member to watch overnight for fire or other emergencies.

Apparently there was a fire hose on the ship which drew water from the sea, giving it unlimited water to fight the fire. The crew was never trained on using this.

Surprisingly, this was the deadliest US maritime accident since the 1950s, and the deadliest US transportation accident of the 2010s. Who would have guessed that a diving boat fire would be the most deadly transportation accident of the last decade?

[BCR]

Joe Biden would have saved them if this was 18 months later. He would have then killed them with the vax six months after that, but clotshot >fire. Biden 2024!

[WillieMcFML]

Diving boats with 30 something people aboard surely had a shit ton of oxygen tanks. This was likely why the fire spread so quickly, and why there were multiple explosions as it burned.

Anyone who’s watched Deadliest Catch knows how dangerous boats at sea can be, and how bad a fire in the engine room can quickly overtake a boat.

As micon once said “watch that deadliest catch, stern and aft day”