Sheriff’s Office: All Southern California boat fire victims recovered, boat raised
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UPDATE 9/12/2019 2:48 p.m. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office held a press conference hours after the NTSB preliminary report on last week’s deadly boat fire was released and the boat was raised.
The Sheriff’s Office said all victims have been recovered and identified. The final victim was found by a dive team from the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office in a cove near the site of the wreckage.
The Conception was successfully raised Thursday afternoon. The Sheriff’s Office said it will be transferred to a barge and taken to a secure location for investigation. Federal authorities will now take the lead on the investigation.
The NTSB said in its preliminary report that all six crew members were asleep when the fire broke out, killing 34 people.
The identities of the victims are:
Carol Diana Adamic 60 F Santa Cruz, CA
Juha Pekka Ahopelto 50 M Sunnyvale, CA
Neal Gustav Baltz 42 M Phoenix, AZ
Patricia Ann Beitzinger 48 F Chandler AZ
Vaidehi Campbell 41 F Felton, CA
Raymond “Scott” Chan 59 M Los Altos, CA
Kendra Chan 26 F Oxnard, CA
Adrian Dahood-Fritz 40 F Sacramento, CA
Justin Carroll Dignam 58 M Anaheim, CA
Berenice Felipe 16 F Santa Cruz, CA
Lisa Fiedler 52 F Mill Valley, CA
Kristina “Kristy” Finstad 41 F Santa Cruz, CA
Andrew Fritz 40 M Sacramento, CA
Daniel Garcia 46 M Berkeley, CA
Marybeth Guiney 51 F Santa Monica, CA
Yuko Hatano 39 F San Jose, CA
Yulia Krashennaya 40 F Berkeley, CA
Alexandra Kurtz 26 F Santa Barbara, CA
Xiang Lin 45 F Fremont, CA
Caroline McLaughlin 35 F Oakland, CA
Charles McIlvain 44 M Santa Monica, CA
Kaustubh Nirmal 33 M Stamford, CT
Sanjeeri DeoPujari (Nirmal) 31 F Stamford, CT
Angela Rose Quitasol 28 F Stockton, CA
Evan Michel Quitasol 37 F Stockton, CA
Nicole Storm Quitasol 31 F Imperial Beach, CA
Michael Quitasol 62 M Stockton, CA
Steven Salika 55 M Santa Cruz, CA
Tia Salika-Adamic 17 F Santa Cruz, CA
Sumil Sandhu 45 M Half Moon Bay, CA
Fernisa Sison 57 F Stockton, CA
Ted Strom 62 M Germantown, TN
Kristian Takvam 34 M San Francisco, CA
Wei Tan 26 F Goleta, CA
UPDATE 9/12/2019 11:00 p.m. The NTSB released a preliminary report on the investigation into last week’s deadly boat fire near Santa Cruz Island on Thursday.
In the release, the NTSB said initial interviews of three crew members showed that no mechanical or electrical issues were reported. When the fire started on the Conception at around 3:14 a.m. on Sept.2, five crew members were asleep in berths behind the wheelhouse and another was in the bunkroom. The NTSB said the bunkroom could be accessed from the salon down a ladder. It said the bunkroom also had an emergency escape hatch that exited to the salon.
The NTSB said a crew member in the wheelhouse heard a noise and woke up. That’s when they saw a fire at the sun deck rising up from the salon compartment. That crew member woke up the rest of the crew and the captain radioed a distress message to the coast guard.
The crew members tried to get to the salon and to the passengers below, but the ladder was on fire, according to the NTSB. The report said the crew members jumped down to the main deck and tried to get into the salon and galley compartment that was fully engulfed through a window, but they were unable to open the window and overwhelmed by smoke, so they jumped overboard.
Two crew members and the captain reboarded the boat and opened the hatch to the engine room, according to the report. The NTSB said they could not get to the salon because the doors were blocked by fire, so they launched a small skiff and picked up the other two crew members. They got to the Grape Escape nearby where the captain continued to radio for help. The report said two crew members returned to the Conception to look for survivors.
The Coast Guard and local fire departments arrived at the scene to put out the fire and conduct search and rescue, but by morning the boat burned to the water line and sank in 60 feet of water.
The Coast Guard declared the fire a major marine casualty later in the day. Since then, the NTSB has been conducting a safety investigation. Investigators have looked at documents from recent inspections and visited similar boats. Crews have also worked to bring the wreckage to the surface for examination. Investigators will be examining regulations regarding this type of boat, including early-warning, smoke detection, alarm systems, evacuation routes, training and company policies.
The NTSB is still working to find the source of the fire.
To read the full report:
PREVIOUS STORY: Additional safety recommendations issued in the aftermath of a fatal boat fire off the Southern California coast that killed 34 people include limiting the unsupervised charging of lithium-ion batteries and the use of power strips and extension cords, the Coast Guard said.
The recommendations come as investigators delving into the cause of the Sept. 2 fire and try to recover the Conception amid an ongoing criminal probe conducted by the FBI, Coast Guard and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
Divers on Wednesday recovered the remains of the last victim — one of dozens who died of smoke inhalation as they were trapped below a raging fire. Authorities have said 21 women and 13 men ranging from 16 to 62 years old appear to have died from smoke inhalation.
Officials expect to release the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report Thursday, spokesman Eric Weiss said.
While it’s not yet clear what the report will address, NTSB member Jennifer Homendy has said investigators are looking at several factors, including how batteries and electronics were stored and charged. They will also look into how the crew was trained and what crew members were doing at the time of the fire.
The boat’s design will also come under scrutiny, particularly whether a bunkroom escape hatch was adequate.
The recommendations from the Coast Guard — which has convened a formal Marine Board of Investigation — also suggest owners and operators of vessels review emergency duties with the crew, identify emergency escapes, check all firefighting and lifesaving equipment onboard, and look at the condition of passenger accommodation spaces for “unsafe practices or other hazardous arrangements.”
Coast Guard records show the Conception passed its two most recent inspections with no safety violations. Previous customers said the company that owns the vessel, Truth Aquatics, and the captains of its three boats, were very safety conscious.
James Hall, a former NTSB chairman, told The Associated Press a preliminary report is generally a summary of the early findings that relies on interviews, inspection documents and other records and a review of current maritime rules and regulations.
A preliminary report would likely not address the fire’s cause, he said. The agency may issue urgent safety recommendations — it does not have the authority to make binding regulations — between the preliminary and final reports, which could take more than a year to complete.
