34 people feared dead after boat catches fire off California's Santa Cruz Island: officials

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Unfortunately, this looks like an Apollo 1.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
I don't understand it. How could a boat with a bunch of SCUBA divers on board have so many fatalities? Why wouldn't they abandon ship and jump in the water?

I could see if it was some kind of a cruise for handicapped folks, but SCUBA divers??

In 1980 or 81, a plane with a group of skydivers that was planning to jump into Aloha Stadium crashed into Pearl Harbor, killing 11 of 12 on board. The last radio call was that they were ready for the jump and were climbing to 3500 feet to prepare.

Things happen fast, people get trapped, ways out get blocked. Even with people that think they're prepared, things happen and people get killed.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I heard that the fire was between the cabins and the outside. They were trapped.
I cant imagine the horror.
I wonder though if the crew didnt have extinguishers on board. They got off the boat because they were on the bridge with the fire behind them.
If they tried to put out the fire and failed it got out of control fast which happens.

If they could have gotten to the water they could have swam to shore it was not that far. They were trapped.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Here's another article on the tragedy...

Many feared dead

Read the article and the entire story makes me think something is off. Something is not okay, some serious mistakes have been made with safety procedures. This will come back in the news...me think.

a reply to: BlueJacket

I never dived but when I was a kid the man across the hall from us got sick and had to have an oxygen tent in his apartment.
When I went to pay him a visit the adults were being told they could not smoke in the bedroom because the tank could explode. I dont know.. Its something the grownups said.
The boat has sunk so I don't even know if they will have anything to investigate to see why the fire started.

a reply to: zatara

...another one of those "The situation is fluid" moments.

originally posted by: zatara

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Here's another article on the tragedy...

Many feared dead

Read the article and the entire story makes me think something is off. Something is not okay, some serious mistakes have been made with safety procedures. This will come back in the news...me think.

From that article

'It keeps being extinguished and re-flashing, possibly due to the amount of fuel on board. Unsure why, but it's consistently being put out and re-flashing,' Bemis said about two hours into the rescue mission.

originally posted by: BlueJacket
Only thing my wife and I could come up with is oxygen...all those scuba tanks? Could they of exploded? I know its just compressed air, but could it play a part?

It is compress't AIR! not Oxygen.
they would need a lot of heat to go bang!
they would most likly just leak air.

This was a Ship not some thing small.
they Dont have one door!!!
this was to quick and most die?

Some thing more is going on!
they may have sound some thing?
or getting to close to some thing.

originally posted by: buddha
This was a Ship not some thing small.
they Dont have one door!!!
this was to quick and most die?

Some thing more is going on!
they may have sound some thing?
or getting to close to some thing.

Or the much more logical sometimes horrible tragedies take place without some nefarious element causing it.

originally posted by: buddha

originally posted by: BlueJacket
Only thing my wife and I could come up with is oxygen...all those scuba tanks? Could they of exploded? I know its just compressed air, but could it play a part?

It is compress't AIR! not Oxygen.
they would need a lot of heat to go bang!
they would most likly just leak air.

Well, not exactly. The more I thought about it after posting the OP, there very well might have been NITROX onboard and possibly pure oxygen for blending NITROX. NITROX can be as high as 40% pure oxygen. Plus, even high pressure air will accelerate a fire and that is only 21% oxygen. NITROX is used to extend diving times at the expense of depth due to the potential for oxygen toxicity. It basically displaces some of the nitrogen to prevent it from being absorbed by the body.

One of the common ways to blend NITROX is to start by partially filling a tank with pure oxygen, then filling it the rest of the way with normal air. There are other methods, but they're more involved and would require more equipment than what would be on a boat. The thing with NITROX though is all the equipment has to be what is known as "oxygen clean" meaning there are not substances (such as oil) which, when combined with pure oxygen, can ignite into a fire.

On large dive boats the crew will usually fill tanks which are expended during the day at night and in the early morning so they're ready for the next day's diving. If they stumbled upon some equipment which wasn't 'oxygen clean' when they were adding the pure oxygen then it may have started a fire. An oxygen fueled fire is several thousand degrees, way higher than the melting points of most steel and aluminum. They are also extremely difficult to extinguish.

Sounds like whatever happened took place very rapidly.

There was an incident in NC where a guy knocked over a NITROX tank into another tank. The NITROX tank exploded with such force it not only blew off the guy's arm, but it also blew his wife off the toilet on the other side of his house. It leveled his garage in the process.

Extremely sad story. Certainly sounds like they got trapped with no way out. Even in a decent size boat there’s no where to run to escape. If you think of a house fire that usually has a few doors and windows, people still get trapped very quickly, I can’t imagine on a boat. Very possible that they may have had a fuel line rupture that ignited the fuel onboard, a boat that size is carrying a lot of fuel and it can go up quickly, even if it’s diesel.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

Tragic indeed! So sad.

Only one exit from sleeping quarters to deck above.

"It's a 75-foot commercial dive vessel that reportedly had 39 people on board. The five crew members able to disembark because they were in the main cabin. The 34 passengers were below decks," Bemis added.

"The report we got was they were trapped by the fire. The fire was so intense that even after it was put out, we're not able to actually embark the vessel and, you know, look for survivors at this point. It's still ongoing," he said.

34 Reported Dead In Ventura County Dive-Boat Fire

Sad event on a holiday weekend diving trip... apparently only one exit from sleeping quarters to deck above.

I am pretty sure in Oz you gotta have at least 2 exits.... they are pretty strict for commercial boating ventures. Life boats for everyone, life jackets for everyone...more than one exit, extensive fire alarm systems and fire suppression systems in place, or you don't get to go into business legally.

Investigation ongoing of course... but reinforces the need for boating to make sure all bilge ventilation fans operate properly, 200% needed air capacity; and converting of any "gas" system kitchens/galleys to be replaced with ELECTRIC stoves/ovens. NO GAS APPLIANCES!

Some form of "accelerant" sure seems at play in this tragedy.... a bad build up of CO could be the culprit too.

Hopefully they can sort out the cause, and implement changes or inspections to prevent something like this happening again.

Pravdaseeker

Likely caused by propane for cooking or fuel fumes from the engine room.

The boat was a wood hull with no water tight fittings between compartments.

All most no firefighting equipment except fire extinguishers.

On 17 March 1973 I fought a ship fire with top of the line fire fighting equipment and it was a close call.
en.wikipedia.org...(AM-437)

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

No need to 'trap' them really … maybe they were just partying too hard? Bad timing?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Ban boats. Boats are not a right guaranteed by the Constitution.

Boating death is a tragedy. It is senseless. Humans were never meant to float about on the ocean.

BAN BOATS!!!

More people die on boats than in school shootings.

Escape hatch was locked...or didn't exist.
heraldpublicist.com...

a reply to: buddha

Well apparently this 75' vessel had no escape hatch for the living quarters...at least that's what the captain said when he was talking to the coastguard dispatch. It does seem to me the fire had to have met some kind of accelerate and grew rapidly before alarm was raised. Awful way to go...and I guess the captain was unable to get to them but did indeed remain on scene assisting rescue efforts...so I take back what I said of him as well...sometimes s!%$ty stuff happens.

There’s no need for the scuba tanks to be involved. The fire started at 3 AM when they all sleeping and likely began spreading before they even noticed it.

They were almost all in a single room full of sleeping berths that had only one exit. If the fire was at that single path of exit, then they would have been trapped.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Why was there no fire alarm then?

All commercial boats are required to have fire alarms. Especially in sleeping quarters.

Why did only the crew escape?

Were they trying to not alarm the passengers and put the fire out without them knowing?

I'm not suggesting there was foul play here (other than possibly criminal negligence), but something is definitely fishy here.

ETA - Why is there not more information out there about the incident? Within an hour of the Walmart shootings the public knew every detail, including the underwear size of the perpetrator, why not in this situation?