Boat fire at Channel Islands in California kills 34 people

[Dan Druff]

Contrary to popular belief, fire is often the biggest danger when at sea. This is because it can consume boats quickly, and it's much tougher to escape than on land.

A company called "Truth Aquatics" has been taking people on multiple-day diving tours for a long time. These boats hold over 33 passengers, and there is an indoor area where people sleep at night on bunk beds.

This boat, Conception, built in 1981, is often used for the trip:



At about 3:15am on Monday morning, a fire broke out on Conception. All 33 passengers were sleeping, as was one crew member. The other five crew were awake when the fire broke out. (It's not clear why 5 of the 6 crew members were up so late.)

The fire spread so rapidly that there was no way out for the people sleeping indoors. A panicked phone call, possibly by a passenger, was received on 911 shortly after the fire broke out:



The 5 awake crew jumped off the ship and managed to be rescued by another boat. 25 people are confirmed dead, and the other 9 are missing after 24 hours, and presumed dead. So all 33 passengers died, plus one crew, barring a miracle where one is found alive.

The boat kept bursting back into flames after being extinguished, presumably due to the fuel onboard.






The tragedy occurred near Santa Cruz Island, which is one of the uninhabited Channel Islands, located west of Santa Barbara. The dorms at UCSB are named after these islands. The islands are protected by the federal government as a National Park, but few people visit them each year, as they are difficult to access.

This is one of the worst boating tragedies in modern US history.

My girlfriend told me that she went on this boat in the 1990s, and that the sleeping quarters were packed extremely close together with people.

Reportedly there were no code violations by the company, and no one is expected to be charged with any crime. The cause of the fire is unknown. There has been some criticism levied upon the staff who jumped off the boat and apparently made no attempt to save the people trapped inside, similar to the Italian cruise ship where the captain jumped off and later faced criminal charges.

Prior to this incident, reviews for Truth Aquatics and this boat were mostly positive, with the few bad reviews mostly focusing upon alleged poor booking/record keeping practices which left some people without a spot after they paid.

[Dan Druff]

Here is the layout of the room with the bunk beds:



Notice these are triple bunk beds, and there's only one staircase to get out of the room. If the staircase was blocked by fire, everyone was screwed.

Also, reports are now stating that the five crew who escaped were not awake, but rather sleeping on the top deck, and were able to jump off the ship when they saw the fire.

There is now some discussion that secondary exits should be required in rooms like these, though there is no such requirement currently.

The crew member who died was probably sleeping in the only non-bunk bed, the one labeled "17".

[dwai]

WE NEED BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR BOAT LICENSES IMMEDIATELY

[Tellafriend]

We need to ban these so-called "dive boats" immediately.

[FRANKRIZZO]

Yes, there was only one exit up from the entry only few people got out , shame . Not victim blaming but this happens when you go for cutrate cheap vacations etc. Its also glaringly sad that the ship was even allowed to operate without prior safety inspection.

[nightmarefish]

Here is the layout of the room with the bunk beds:



Notice these are triple bunk beds, and there's only one staircase to get out of the room. If the staircase was blocked by fire, everyone was screwed.

Also, reports are now stating that the five crew who escaped were not awake, but rather sleeping on the top deck, and were able to jump off the ship when they saw the fire.

There is now some discussion that secondary exits should be required in rooms like these, though there is no such requirement currently.

The crew member who died was probably sleeping in the only non-bunk bed, the one labeled "17".

The secondary exit is the reason that a window is mandatory for a room in your house to be called a bedroom. They basically were stuck in an oven, horrible way to go.

[SPIT this]

This was supposed to be the summer of George

[FRANKRIZZO]

redacted

[FRANKRIZZO]

There were actually 2 exits both were in flames surprisingly the ship passed safety inspections.

[MumblesBadly]

Think of it: An out-of-control fire on a moderate-sized commercial tour boat in California ends up killing way more people than the largest Atlantic hurricane in over two decades.

[Dan Druff]

There were actually 2 exits both were in flames surprisingly the ship passed safety inspections.

I don't see the second exit. Where is it?

[Dan Druff]

I see on a newer report that there's an escape hatch, but I guess it was blocked by fire.

Still, this probably wasn't safe, though the company isn't at fault, as this is the type of thing which is unfortunately only discovered when tragedy occurs. The boat designs just need to be different to allow better escape, or at least to have better firefighting equipment near the exits.

One guy got lucky in that he had plans to be on the boat, after having done 100 successful trips with them, but needed hip surgery, and he had to cancel. The bad hip ended up saving his life.

[FRANKRIZZO]

There was front and back exits , they where both engulfed.

https://nypost.com/2019/09/03/take-a...at-conception/

I don't know how that boat could pass an inspection though. News said 2 exits. The second one was very small though.

[Dan Druff]

There was front and back exits , they where both engulfed.

https://nypost.com/2019/09/03/take-a...at-conception/

I don't know how that boat could pass an inspection though. News said 2 exits. The second one was very small though.

Article appears to be in error.

There weren't two stairwells, from what I can see on the layout. As I said, CNN claims now that there was also an escape hatch, which is possible because that wouldn't necessarily show on a layout presented on a website.

[Texter]

Anyone remember the Greek ship Oceanos that sank and the crew bailed on the passengers who basically had to be evacuated by the entertainment.

Hope this wasn’t a similar case where the crew just ran for it.

[HoodedN]

[cleatus]

I think this boat could and has passed many safety inspections. druff sez built in '81, so it's been in use for 37-38 years. There are two sister boats owned by the same company, their ages are unknown but if close that would mean the possibility of around 105 annual inspections or 21 insps on a 5 year sched for this small fleet. The stairway or ladder to the galley had to be sufficiently large. I wonder how a fire spread that quickly and completely. What the fuck is that flammable in the galley? Were the crew cooking at that time and fucked up? If the boat didn't sink I think a pile of bodies would be found at bottom of stairs.

[Texter]

I heard they recently hired a new chief steward...on CNN it said his name was M. Carrico.

[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/

[Sidewinder]

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?