Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

[outofofficebrb]

There was a thread last year by a young woman who saw the Captain of a liveaboard peeping at her through a partially opened privacy curtain at her bunk. Most of the posters were ready to string him up. I'm not sure cameras in the berths will work.

I vaguely recall this. I thought it was a private room on a liveaboard (maybe a twin-share) and he was peeping in through the window. There's nothing you can do to prevent that outside of hiring hopefully good, respectful people that aren't creepers. A camera is just stationary- it is static and not in the room or behind the curtain itself but essentially in a "public" area. Honestly, if it means fewer or no people die in a fire like this in the future, I am OK with this if it ever became a requirement/regulation.

On a very large boat, someone can only be in one area at a particular time and view so many areas in one visual sweep. Fire detectors and linking/central systems are another discussion....

 

[Mindless]

It's been more than a few years since I've been on any of the SoCal liveaboards, but I remember on the five-day trips people would initially go through the gymnastics of changing in their bunk, but by day three or four, men and women alike would (as discreetly as possible) change while standing outside their bunk and people just looked the other way. They were there to dive.

Cameras could be strategically placed looking at or down the stairwell, but not directly into the berthing area. More important to my thinking, however, is having cameras in the galley, salon and charging areas.

EDITED BY MODERATOR

 

[cs4160]

Wow, I guess the next question is going to be was that planned or did some one fall asleep.
This is really surprising and not been my experience when out with TA. A long time ago I did something young and foolish on one of their boats and I know they had someone on watch!

 

[Tuttlet]

I would tend to expect that the crew, finding the engine room not on fire, would start fire fighting operations.

"..The crewmembers attempted to access the salon and passengers below. Unable to use the aft ladder, which was on fire, the crewmembers jumped down to the main deck (one crewmember broke his leg in the process) and tried to access the salon and galley compartment, which was fully engulfed by fire at the aft end and by thick smoke in the forward end, through a forward window. Unable to open the window and overwhelmed by smoke, the crew jumped overboard.

Two crewmembers and the captain swam to the stern, reboarded the vessel, opened the hatch to the engine room, and saw no fire. Access to the salon through the aft doors was blocked by fire, so they launched a small skiff and picked up the remaining two crewmembers in the water. They transferred to a recreational vessel anchored nearby (Grape Escape) where the captain continued to radio for help, while two crewmembers returned to the Conception to search for survivors around the burning hull."


What might be in "Fire Station #1"? Where were the fire hose locations?

 

[Cowfish Aesthetic]

Preliminary Report: Marine DCA19MM047

"Initial interviews of three crewmembers revealed that no mechanical or electrical issues were reported. At the time of the fire, five crewmembers were asleep in berths behind the wheelhouse, and one crewmember was asleep in the bunkroom"

This looks much worse for the crew than I think most of us hoped [edited to add: though we should all keep in mind that this is preliminary information and could change], but we now have an important data point regarding how the fire was able to grow to the point it did before being noticed.

One question I don't believe I've seen an answer to (and I apologize if it's been addressed): the report notes "[t]here were two, locally-sounding smoke detectors in the overhead of the bunkroom," but it doesn't address smoke detectors in the salon/galley. We don't know yet where the fire started, but if it started in the salon/galley, one wouldn't expect the bunkroom smoke detectors to go off for a while. Does anyone know the smoke detector situation in the salon/galley?

 

[KevinNM]

A previous inspection report mentioned a heat detector in the galley. No idea beyond that.

 

[PDX Diver]

In my experience, on a vessel of this size, the anchor watch and the fire watch are the same person. In fact that person would be watching out for any kind of potential emergency issue. We're not talking about a 500 foot long freighter here.

There was mention earlier in this thread about a GPS based alarm that acted as an anchor watch. They had alerted the crew about the boat drifting, and was told the alarm hadn't been enabled. I thought they said it was on this boat.

 

[KevinNM]

I would feel very nervous about no anchor watch when I'm anchored 60 feet from rocks.

 

[Tuttlet]

A previous inspection report mentioned a heat detector in the galley. No idea beyond that.

Heat detectors seem to alarm around 55C/130F. Household detectors have an operating range of 0 to 40C and marine detectors -30 to 80C. There may be other response ranges.

The galley area seemed to be not so hot as the aft, as the aft was engulfed and the forward galley was smoky. Perhaps not hot enough to trigger the alarm.

 

[Mindless]

the report notes "[t]here were two, locally-sounding smoke detectors in the overhead of the bunkroom," but it doesn't address smoke detectors in the salon/galley. We don't know yet where the fire started, but if it started in the salon/galley, one wouldn't expect the bunkroom smoke detectors to go off for a while. Does anyone know the smoke detector situation in the salon/galley?

Historically, people were advised against placing smoke detectors in proximity to cooking areas as ionization smoke alarms were too easily triggered by burnt food and steam, resulting in frequent false alarms (and disabled smoke detectors). That advice has mostly changed with the advent of photoelectric smoke detectors, which are more discerning (but can be slower to react). As to if or how this change has impacted maritime regulations, I have no idea, but it wouldn't surprise me if maritime regulations were out of date in this regard.