33 bodies recovered after boat fire, 1 missing

UPDATE 9/4/2019 8:00 a.m. Authorities say they have recovered the bodies of 33 people who died in the scuba diving boat fire that happened off the coast of Southern California.

Coast Guard Lt. Zach Farrell said Wednesday that 13 bodies were recovered Tuesday and that one person is still missing.

Farrell spoke on behalf of an interagency joint information center representing local, county, state and federal officials.

The boat caught fire before dawn on Monday. Authorities previously said 34 people aboard who were below decks sleeping were presumed dead and that five crew members including the captain escaped.

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UPDATE 9/3/2019 12:30 p.m. Two students at Pacific Collegiate School and at least two parents on board the Conception when it caught fire off the Santa Barbara coast. Grief counselors coming to PCS in the morning, and the school is holding a press conference.

UPDATE 9/3/2019 10:22 a.m. Thirty four people are presumed dead in the California dive boat fire and the search has been suspended.

Santa Barbara County Bill Brown said Tuesday that the bodies of 20 victims have been recovered and divers have seen between and four and six others in the sunken wreckage, which must be stabilized.

Brown says the recovered remains include 11 females and nine males and DNA will be used to identify them.

Thirty-nine people including six crew members were aboard the vessel Conception when it caught fire early Monday morning while anchored off Santa Cruz Island.

Five crew members jumped in the ocean and were rescued.

Dive company owner among missing in California boat fire

Marine biologist Kristy Finstad first put on a dive tank at the age of nine.

The 41-year-old Santa Cruz resident and co-owner of Worldwide Diving Adventures was leading the scuba tour off Southern California when fire engulfed the dive boat, Conception, early Monday with 39 people on board, including six crew members.

Her brother Brett Harmeling of Houston said Tuesday that Finstad was among dozens missing and presumed dead off Santa Cruz island, part of California’s Channel Islands. Harmeling thanked everyone in a post on his Facebook page for their “unconditional love and support during this incredibly tragic time.”

“No final word on my sister Kristy; however, it is likely she has transitioned to be with the good Lord,” he wrote.

Authorities say five crew members were rescued and 25 deaths have been confirmed so far, but no identities have been made public.

Harmeling described his sister to the Los Angeles Times as extremely strong-willed and adventurous.

“If there was a one percent chance of her making it, she would have made it,” Harmeling, 31, said.

Finstad had done thousands of dives, including hundreds to the Channel Islands, where she first swam with her father as a toddler. She first dove with a tank off Mexico, according to her company’s website.

Her mother founded the diving company in the 1970s.

Finstad studied damselfish and corals in the Tahitian Islands, dove for black pearls in the French Polynesian Tuamotus Islands and counted salmonids for the city of Santa Cruz, where she lived. She also did research for the Australian Institute of Marine Science and wrote a restoration guidebook for the California Coastal Commission.

“My mission is to inspire appreciation for our underwater world,” she wrote on her company’s website.

She and her husband had just returned from sailing across the South Pacific. It was part of their 10-year plan that started on the back of a napkin in 2006.

UPDATE (5:00 a.m.): A parent of a student at the Pacific Collegiate School in Santa Cruz says they’ve received a notice from the school that two students and at least two parents were on board a boat involved in the deadly southern California boat fire.

The parent says the notice from the school also says grief counseling will be offered to students and staff following a tragedy that has already seen 25 people dead and 9 others still missing.

The cause of the fire is unknown.

Worldwide Diving Adventures co-owner, Kristy Finstad is also one of the people feared dead. She was leading the diving team that was heading out on the boat.

Her father, Bill, was confirmed by neighbors to be in Southern California awaiting confirmation of her well-being.

Crews are continuing their search overnight for the 9 people missing.

Attempts to put out the fire proved difficult as crews say the fire kept re-igniting.

UPDATE (9:50 p.m.): Coast Guard says 25 bodies from Southern California boat fire have now been found, nine people still missing.

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UPDATE 9/2/2019 4:24 p.m. Officials in Santa Barbara County released new details Monday afternoon about the investigation into a boat fire that left at least 8 people dead.

A fire started on the boat near Santa Cruz Island at around 3:30 Monday morning. By the time the fire was reported to the Coast Guard, the boat was already fully engulfed. The boat sank at around 7:20 a.m. and five crew members were rescued.

After a search, four bodies were recovered near the site and four more were found on the ocean floor near the boat wreckage. A dive team is working to recover the bodies on the ocean floor. Dozens of people are still missing.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said there were 6 crew members and 33 passengers on the boat when it left the harbor for a three day diving trip. The boat was due back on Tuesday.

Investigators said no explosions were reported when the fire was called in, but scuba gear or propane tanks could have caused one. They believe most if not all of those on board were sleeping when the fire started.

The Coast Guard said it does annual inspections of these boats, and the boats it inspects are required to have firefighting equipment on board. Coast Guard officials also said boats like the one that caught fire usually have escape hatches so those below deck can get to the main deck.

Coast Guard Capt. Monica Rochester says the search for more than two dozen other missing persons will go on into Tuesday morning but that but people should be prepared for “the worst outcome.”

UPDATE 9/2/2019 4:24 p.m. Officials in Santa Barbara County released new details Monday afternoon about the investigation into a boat fire that left at least 8 people dead.

A fire started on the boat near Santa Cruz Island at around 3:30 Monday morning. By the time the fire was reported to the Coast Guard, the boat was already fully engulfed. The boat sank at around 7:20 a.m. and five crew members were rescued.

After a search, four bodies were recovered near the site and four more were found on the ocean floor near the boat wreckage. Dozens of people are still missing.

UPDATE 9/2/2019 2:30 p.m. An unexplained inferno raged through a dive boat anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early Monday, leaving at least four people dead and more than two dozen others missing after the gutted vessel sank.

Four bodies were recovered within hours and all had injuries consistent with drowning, said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Kroll.

The tragedy occurred aboard the vessel Conception sometime around 3 a.m. off Santa Cruz Island, part of a chain of rugged wind-swept isles that form Channel Islands National Park in the Pacific Ocean west of Los Angeles.

“Right now they’re conducting shoreline searches for any available survivors,” Coast Guard Capt. Monica Rochester told reporters at a brief news conference at Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard on the mainland.

The Coast Guard said the vessel was believed to have carried 38 people, including five crew members who jumped off soon after the fire ignited.

“The crew was actually already awake and on the bridge and they jumped off,” Rochester said.

Two suffered minor injuries, Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Barney said.

Authorities said the crew members were rescued by a good Samaritan vessel called The Grape Escape.

Asked if the crew tried to help others aboard, Rochester said, “I don’t have any additional information.”

A woman who came to the harbor said, “My son was on that boat.” She was led away by a Ventura County firefighter.

Rochester said the 75-foot (20-meter) commercial scuba diving vessel was anchored in Platts Harbor, about 20 yards (18 meters) off the northern coast of Santa Cruz Island, when the fire ignited.

She said the vessel sank in 64 feet (19.5 meters) of water but its bow was still visible above the waterline.

The Conception, based in Santa Barbara Harbor on the mainland, was on the final day of a Labor Day weekend cruise to the Channel Islands when the fire erupted.

“At 3:15 this morning the Coast Guard overheard a mayday call. The call was garbled, it was not that clear, but we were able to get some information out of it to send vessels on scene,” Barney said.

Rochester said that call indicated the boat was already fully ablaze.

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. It was owned and operated by Truth Aquatics, a Santa Barbara-based company founded in 1974.

Asked if the boat operator has a history of any violations, Rochester said, “The vessel has been in full compliance.”

Dave Reid, who runs an underwater camera business with his wife and who has traveled on the Conception and two other boats in Truth Aquatics’ fleet, said he considered all three among the best and safest dive-boats around.

“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.”

Reid noted divers sleep overnight in berths on the vessel’s lowest deck so they are rested and ready to dive all day when the sun comes up. No one is ever locked into that deck, he said, but coming up to the top deck to get off the boat requires negotiating a narrow stairway with only one exit. If the fire was fast-moving, he said, it’s very likely divers couldn’t escape and the crew couldn’t get to them.

Coast Guard records show inspections conducted last February and in August 2018 found no deficiencies. Earlier inspections found some safety violations 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.

Records show all safety violations from the last five years were quickly addressed by the boat’s owners

The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team to investigate.

The Conception had departed at 4 a.m. Saturday with plans to return at 5 p.m. Monday.

Truth Aquatics’ website reports the vessel, launched in 1981, has rafts and life jackets for up to 110 passengers and exits on the port, starboard and bow that provide “easy water entry.”

The trip promised multiple opportunities to see colorful coral and a rich variety of marine life around the Channel Islands, which draw boaters, divers and hikers.

Five of the eight Channel Islands comprise the national park and Santa Cruz is the largest within the park at about 96 square miles (248.6 square kilometers).

UPDATE 9/2/2019 11:00 a.m. A Coast Guard spokesperson confirms that four bodies have been recovered after a boat caught fire of the southern California coast.

Officials said the bodies recovered had injuries consistent with drowning. 29 people are still missing.

Five crew members were awake when the fire started and jumped into the water. They survived and were rescued.

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As many as 34 people are feared dead, according to the Coast Guard, after a dive boat caught fire before dawn Monday off the Southern California coast.

Five crew members were rescued and Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Kroll told The Associated Press the Coast Guard was searching for others who may have been able to escape the fire by jumping from the boat.

He added, however, that 34 were feared dead. Two of the crew suffered minor injuries, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Barney.

“Right now they’re conducting shoreline searches for any available survivors,” Coast Guard Capt. Monica Rochester told reporters at a brief news conference in Oxnard.

She said the vessel was about 20 yards (18 meters) off the coast of Santa Cruz Island when the fire ignited.

Capt. Brian McGrath of the Ventura County Fire Department confirmed some deaths to The Associated Press but said he could not give an exact number.

The fire broke out before dawn aboard the dive boat Conception on the final day of a Labor Day weekend cruise to the Channel Islands.

“At 3:15 this morning the Coast Guard overheard a mayday call. The call was garbled, it was not that clear, but we were able to get some information out of it to send vessels on scene,” Barney said.

The Conception was operated by Worldwide Diving Adventures, a respected Santa Barbara-based company that says on its website it has been taking divers on such expeditions since 1972.

The Coast Guard said five crewmembers sleeping on the top deck of the 75-foot (20-meter) commercial scuba diving vessel were rescued by a good Samaritan pleasure craft called The Grape Escape.

The 34 others, who were sleeping below deck, have not been accounted for, Kroll said.

The Conception had departed at 4 a.m. Saturday with plans to return at 5 p.m. Monday.

It was outfitted with dozens of small berths for people to sleep in overnight.

The trip promised multiple opportunities to see colorful coral and a variety of marine life.