Conception trial begins

[NorCalDM]

Conception boat fire that killed 34 people started in plastic trash can, confidential report says Here is a link to an article that has clips from the ATF report. The report has not been released to the public do to the trial. I'm not sure if this has been shared previously. Sad no matter what as I have spent many dive trips on that boat with that captain.

 

[Cthippo]

They will never prove it, but someone probably flicked their cigagarette in there after a last smoke before bed.

 

[John the Pom]

Don't be so quick to dismiss it. I've posted this video before and here it is again. This is from the Oak Ridge, (Tenn) Fire Department and demonstrates how flashover can occur in as little as three minutes. This one starts in a trash can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtMmymOxdjc

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There have been several disasters caused when a small, smouldering fire flashes over. Often the original combustion appears so minor that it either goes unnoticed or is not taken seriously. The Bradford City football stadium fire would be an example. People died still sitting in their seats, the fire took hold so rapidly.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

Conception boat fire that killed 34 people started in plastic trash can, confidential report says Here is a link to an article that has clips from the ATF report.

FWIW . . . I don't buy it. This seems to me more of attempt to "prove" a theory rather than really use the evidence - of which there is none about the origin - to direct you. The L.A. Times article says ATF did "a series of burn tests" but doesn't say if it was the same test over and over until they got the result they wanted, of if they tested out various ignition sources and locations and this was the only one that duplicated the actual fire.

I have been told by someone who supposedly has some inside info on this - so take this with a grain of salt - that it took them three tries to get the fire to ignite in the trash can. Then, ATF added a breeze top aid the spread. But if there was a breeze that night, the boat would have been facing into it most likely so the breeze shouldn't have factored in.

From crew statements, we know that one of them walked by the trash can at 2:35AM on his way up to the wheelhouse. he would have noticed a smoldering trash can. (He had already checked the griddle to make sure it was off.) So now the question is, if this is what ATF says happened, how did the fire start? The passengers were all below asleep and the crew was up in the wheelhouse so what was the source and, more importantly, WHO was the source of the flame that started this?

The report also says that within minutes, the main salon was on fire. Does that mean if the roving watchman was down in the engine room when the fire broke out, the end result would have been the same because by the time he came up, the fire was too far along? What does the timeline say about the likelihood of either putting out the fire &/or evacuating the bunkroom. Were these things even tested?

I think it's really terrific (seriously) that they built a full-size mock of the boat to do these tests. But I wish they'd have been more transparent with the procedures and results and I also wish they had gotten other agencies - like NTSB and USCG - involved in the process.

 

[BRT]

Once combustion occurred, one would think a night watch with an extinguisher might‘ve done a lot of good. And failures often have more than one step. It the problem was a battery in with paper trash, something as simple as a placard—combined with an effective briefing—might’ve changed things. And if the trash had been emptied before lights out, well, who knows. I do plan to keep an eye on common-area trashcans from now on.

Emptied to where?

 

[tekkydiver]

Bottom line.... The Captain is the Captain is the Captain

 

[Bob DBF]

Once combustion occurred, one would think a night watch with an extinguisher might‘ve done a lot of good.

If the night watch was there at the time, as a roving watch he could be somewhere else long enough for the fire to become deadly.

And if the trash had been emptied before lights out, well, who knows. I do plan to keep an eye on common-area trashcans from now on.

All trash is kept onboard so it would have only moved the fire, placing it with more fuel.

 

[rmorgan]

Emptied to where?

The trash? A collection bag, and then a central location, could be a steel box where all the trash goes before offloading or a crew space beyond a fireproof door. The liveaboards I’ve been on have routine and frequent trash collection. But the point, to me, is not to leave a bunch of fuel unattended in a common area.

 

[nolatom]

If the night watch was there at the time, as a roving watch he could be somewhere else long enough for the fire to become deadly.



All trash is kept onboard so it would have only moved the fire, placing it with more fuel.

As a late-night watchstander while at anchor (meaning an offshore mooring buoy) a few times, on a hundred-foot, hundred-ton boat, I was mostly in the salon/galley or the nearby two-steps-up wheelhouse and captain's chair. So I've already looked at them, can't avoid it. To make a round from there, it's a quick look into the forepeak space/bunk, halfway down the steps and back up. Then down the staircase to the bottom deck sleeping quarters, quick look and sniff, then back up. Then out on the dive deck, looky-look, then down and through a hatch and stairs to the engineroom, a few steps in around each of three main engines, generators, all good, so back up on the dive deck, and up the staircase to the big open top deck, the "aluminum beach", nothing on it, no nearby traffic, and gosh the night sky is sure beautiful, I might gaze a couple or three minutes, or not. Then back down to dive deck, back into the salon, grab a coffee, and have a seat at table or Captain's chair. It probably took about as long as it's taken me to type this, say about four minutes if I didn't stargaze, 6 or 7 minutes if I did.

Others' mileage may vary, but I don't picture a fire starting in the salon and galley that I was already located in and had to pass through a couple of times anyway to go fore and aft, getting too much of a head start.

 

[nolatom]

When fighting a shipboard fire, as all of the old Navy men and women here will tell you, as soon as you spray fog on the fire, especially a Class A fire, you knock it's dick square in the dirt. I would walk through a blazing inferno with a high velocity fog nozzle with a 4' applicator over my shoulder. Without the applicator (T-boats aren't required to carry one), 2 nozzlemen side by side will protect each other in as little as shorts and a t-shirt. Turnouts also aren't required on a T-boat. The beauty of fog is that it pulls in fresh air from behind, so you have something to breath, as SCBA's aren't required on a T-boat.

I wont say that they could have saved any passengers, as Tom said, by the time the fire was discovered, the PAX were likely all deceased.

Including 2 of my friends, one being a Spree crewmember.

Condolences, Frank, on your loss. God Bless.