jplant
Registered
Fortunately the insensitive ignorant post and the subsequent trolling has been taken down.
Fire on dive boat Conception in CA
- Thread starter divezonescuba
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Please stay to the facts. Speculation does not get us anywhere.
I just hope that the cause is discovered so that this can be prevented from ever happening again...
One item that hasn't been mentioned is the large quantity of Li Ion batts in close proximity to each other that would have most likely been in full charging mode at that time of the morning.
Also, does the Conception pump Nitrox? If yes then I assume it's a membrane system?
As far as safety briefings and procedures go, the only liveaboards that I have experienced on multiple occasions are the Truth and the Nautilus Explorer. I don't seem to recall the details of the briefings on either boat which means that I need to, and will, from now on give this information the full respect that it deserves. I definitely do know that on the Nautilus there was not only a thorough safety briefing but an actual all hands and passengers fire drill on every trip, with full evacuation protocols, mustering stations, crew and passenger count-off, crew donning full fire fighting gear with SCBA's, etc...
It is sounding to me like what happened on the Conception was so acute and catastrophic, that briefings and drilling may have not made a difference..
One item that hasn't been mentioned is the large quantity of Li Ion batts in close proximity to each other that would have most likely been in full charging mode at that time of the morning.
Also, does the Conception pump Nitrox? If yes then I assume it's a membrane system?
As far as safety briefings and procedures go, the only liveaboards that I have experienced on multiple occasions are the Truth and the Nautilus Explorer. I don't seem to recall the details of the briefings on either boat which means that I need to, and will, from now on give this information the full respect that it deserves. I definitely do know that on the Nautilus there was not only a thorough safety briefing but an actual all hands and passengers fire drill on every trip, with full evacuation protocols, mustering stations, crew and passenger count-off, crew donning full fire fighting gear with SCBA's, etc...
It is sounding to me like what happened on the Conception was so acute and catastrophic, that briefings and drilling may have not made a difference..
KevinNM
Contributor
IIRC, in an actual fire the external tank temp rise is so steep and fast that the burst disk in an aluminum tank doesn't typically function or function effectively. The tank fails due to the aluminum yielding, not due to over-pressurization. But we'll see what the investigation finds.
Thats good. I did report the feedback to Facebook, not sure if it had any impact. I greatly dislike the similar posts happening on the Truth Aquatics facebook page but it was their boat. Instead these poor folks were just victims and entirely blameless and also victims of the tragedy. If the NTSB comes back that Truth wasn't at fault I'd hope for those comments on their page to be cleaned up as well, if Truth was at fault then I suppose they should remain.
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opisthobranch
Contributor
No, I don't believe so. I'm quite certain these boats used a nitrox stick system with a compressor. I'm sure they had emergency O2 but not storage banks. I can't completely discount the possibility that there were RB divers with their own bottles onboard but that doesn't seem too likely given the charterer.
UPDATE - I meant membrane. Sorry for any confusion.
hammet
Contributor
A lot of new details here
California boat fire: 4 dead, 30 missing as families seek information
Around 3:15 a.m., Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach watchstanders overheard a mayday call of the boat on fire, according to the agency. Fire department crews were fighting the fire when the boat sank 20 yards off shore in 64 feet of water, with a portion of the bow sticking out of the water.
In a garbled mayday call, a man says there are 39 people aboard.
“I can’t breathe,” the man frantically says.
The five crew members were rescued by a good Samaritan boat, the Grape Escape, according to the agency. Two of them sustained leg injuries.
Shirley Hansen and her husband, Bob, were jarred awake about 3:30 a.m. by the sound of pounding on the side of their 60-foot fishing boat.
The crew had escaped the Conception by jumping into the ocean, retrieving a dinghy and paddling 200 yards to the Hansens’ boat, the Grape Escape, Shirley Hansen said in an interview.
The crew was distraught, some wearing only underwear, she said. One man told the Hansens that his girlfriend was still below deck on the Conception. Another man cried, describing how they had celebrated three passengers’ birthdays hours earlier, including that of a 17-year-old girl who was on the diving trip with her parents.
One crewman’s leg was injured, Shirley Hansen said, and another had visible ankle injuries. She could see the Conception ablaze from her boat and said there was so much smoke that she had to use an inhaler.
As the Hansens handed out blankets and clothes to the crew, two of the men got back into the dinghy to see if anyone else had jumped overboard.
“But they came back and there was no one that they found,” Shirley Hansen said.
California boat fire: 4 dead, 30 missing as families seek information
Around 3:15 a.m., Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach watchstanders overheard a mayday call of the boat on fire, according to the agency. Fire department crews were fighting the fire when the boat sank 20 yards off shore in 64 feet of water, with a portion of the bow sticking out of the water.
In a garbled mayday call, a man says there are 39 people aboard.
“I can’t breathe,” the man frantically says.
The five crew members were rescued by a good Samaritan boat, the Grape Escape, according to the agency. Two of them sustained leg injuries.
Shirley Hansen and her husband, Bob, were jarred awake about 3:30 a.m. by the sound of pounding on the side of their 60-foot fishing boat.
The crew had escaped the Conception by jumping into the ocean, retrieving a dinghy and paddling 200 yards to the Hansens’ boat, the Grape Escape, Shirley Hansen said in an interview.
The crew was distraught, some wearing only underwear, she said. One man told the Hansens that his girlfriend was still below deck on the Conception. Another man cried, describing how they had celebrated three passengers’ birthdays hours earlier, including that of a 17-year-old girl who was on the diving trip with her parents.
One crewman’s leg was injured, Shirley Hansen said, and another had visible ankle injuries. She could see the Conception ablaze from her boat and said there was so much smoke that she had to use an inhaler.
As the Hansens handed out blankets and clothes to the crew, two of the men got back into the dinghy to see if anyone else had jumped overboard.
“But they came back and there was no one that they found,” Shirley Hansen said.
DrMack
Registered
I understand your point. I also believe though that some speculation is healthy because it helps us conjure up what-if scenarios that may be just as valuable as the factual account when it becomes known. Speculation aids in our quest for procedures and equipment design modifications that would be able to prevent these tragedies. So even if the speculated scenarios turn out to be not what happened in this case, the envisioned scenarios MIGHT happen in a future situation and we'll all be grateful that we in the community had already considered those possibilities and prepared for them. At least that's how it happens in aviation (I'm a pilot). General aviation accidents happen all the time, and just like the dive community, the aviator discussion boards light up after every event with more speculation than facts. But we are glad to have all the possibilities put on the table for the reasons just mentioned.
KevinNM
Contributor
GRP hulls and cabins will burn, but they are not kindling. How it got so bad so fast seems like one of the questions that will have to be answered.
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