Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

[Wookie]

Wookie,

It did when I was onboard. It was in the lazerette (sp).

markm

I wouldn’t expect a lazarette fire to spread like this one did. YMMV. With an open back deck, it would have to get through the engineroom which is reported to have had a CO2 system in it...

 

[cs4160]

Not sure I agree , sure there has been a bit of invective, but certainly less than most forums.

It has given us:
Confirmation of layout
Pictures of interior of boat and emergency egress
Details of nitrox/air facilities
Provided non SoCal divers an education on Southern California diving and specifically our opinion in Truth Aquatics
Provided SoCal divers with a challenge to our previously accepted standards for safety
Chemistry lessons
And more....

It’s been a good thread, let’s just step back and not be personal....maybe read twice, breathe 3 times and then type

 

[KevinNM]

Since we're trying to learn something of value going forward from this awful tragedy, and it seems having an efficient, well-known 2nd exit path from any below-deck housing (this may effect more than is obvious; when I did live-aboards, I seldom thought about where crew bunked, and their safety is important, too).

For sake of argument, let's stay a big hatch at the opposite end of the 'bunk house' from the main ladder exit is agreed upon as a great idea.

I don't know how costly in time, labor and money it is to alter a large dive boat to meet such a standard. Anyone got a rough estimate?

Richard.

P.S.: I also wonder just how the risk of this event recurring compares to other risks. On a typical dive deck we get around lots of tanks with tremendous gas pressures compressed into them. Tanks can fail, sometimes a geared-up tank falls valve first, etc...

Not an expert, but there seem to be regulatory issues having an escape trunk directly to the outside.

Scuba tanks are absurdly tough. Given how they are abused and how many there are there are very, very few tank failures.

 

[scubadada]

My husband and I were on the Nautilus Explorer several years ago on a trip to Guadalupe Island for a Great White Shark trip and I also remember and was impressed by the mandatory PFD/evacuation drill for passengers and the fire fighting drill completed during the trip by the crew. We were discussing this horrific Conception tragedy last night and we remembered that of all the liveaboards we have been on over the years, the ONLY time we were required to participate in a mandatory PFD/evacuation drill or see the crew practice a fire drill was onboard the Nautilus Explorer.

Amazing how a tragedy jogs your memory, my trip was only at the end of May.

 

[Wookie]

Since we're trying to learn something of value going forward from this awful tragedy, and it seems having an efficient, well-known 2nd exit path from any below-deck housing (this may effect more than is obvious; when I did live-aboards, I seldom thought about where crew bunked, and their safety is important, too).

For sake of argument, let's stay a big hatch at the opposite end of the 'bunk house' from the main ladder exit is agreed upon as a great idea.

I don't know how costly in time, labor and money it is to alter a large dive boat to meet such a standard. Anyone got a rough estimate?

Richard.

P.S.: I also wonder just how the risk of this event recurring compares to other risks. On a typical dive deck we get around lots of tanks with tremendous gas pressures compressed into them. Tanks can fail, sometimes a geared-up tank falls valve first, etc...

THIS IS MY OPINION

I hate vertical escape hatches. The Coast Guard requires them. I find them to be more like chimneys than escape hatches, and I have argued to the coast guard many times that a hole through a watertight bulkhead is far safer. There was a commandant 40 years ago that hated cross flooding and outlawed watertight doors in division bulkheads. I think that is a mistake.

But I wasn’t asked.

 

[JohnnyC]

USCG helicopter video. 13:40 Zulu is 5:40am. In 2 hours, this is all that was left.

 

[Still Kicking]

I just want to point out that the dive boat operators in California are not making "a quick buck" with ramshackle boats and cutting corners at every opportunity. They run their businesses with a great deal of skill and diligence and at the end of the day, it's pretty much a break-even proposition.

The boats in California cater to divers of all income levels. You don't have to have thousands of dollars of disposable income to take a trip and they take divers to places they would never see without a private boat. The accommodations are pretty basic but the diving is first rate. I will take that trade off.

For the majority of operators, if not all, their motivation is doing something they love and offering a service to the diving community. They are concerned about the safety of their passengers. They are scrutinized by the CG and they comply with the regulations -- if the regulations are deficient, that's another matter.

Obviously there should be changes as a result of the accident and hopefully future incidents can be prevented.

But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that there have been hundreds of thousands of boat trips in Southern California over the last 50 years with very few incidents. I would like to thank all the dive boat owners and crew for all the safe trips I have had over the years and I hope you can continue to operate in the new environment that no doubt will come in the wake of this tragedy.

 

[BlueTrin]

THIS IS MY OPINION

I hate vertical escape hatches. The Coast Guard requires them. I find them to be more like chimneys than escape hatches, and I have argued to the coast guard many times that a hole through a watertight bulkhead is far safer. There was a commandant 40 years ago that hated cross flooding and outlawed watertight doors in division bulkheads. I think that is a mistake.

But I wasn’t asked.

So if a boat would use this scheme, you would end up in a tunnel (the bulkhead) ?

I am trying to picture how it works ...

What’s the cross flooding issue you mentioned ?

 

[HKGuns]

That video illustrates how close they were to shore. Does anyone know if that shoreline is accessible? It looks awfully steep and rocky in the video.

 

[KevinNM]

So if a boat would use this scheme, you would end up in a tunnel (the bulkhead) ?

I am trying to picture how it works ...

What’s the cross flooding issue you mentioned ?

On most boats you would end up in the engine room when you opened the door. And alarms would go off all over the boat. Not sure how you get out of the engine room, but if the other exit is impassible due to a fire it certainly would seem a better place to be.

Cross flooding seems to mean when water tight compartment flood sequentially or simultaneously due to water-tight doors being left open.