Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

[tarponchik]

Thousands of people died in the twin towers. Were the twin towers death traps? Or did something so out in left field no one had ever considered it as a factor happen that caused so many deaths?

Roak

I am sure the twin towers had proper evacuation plans in case of fire within. What turned twin towers into death traps was an attack from outside that injected tons of burning jet fuel inside the buildings. To make your analogy working you need some evidence of an outside attack on Conception, like with an anti-ship missile.

 

[NickB-LA]

I am sure the twin towers had proper evacuation plans in case of fire within. What turned twin towers into death traps was an attack from outside that injected tons of burning jet fuel inside the buildings. To make your analogy working you need some evidence of an outside attack on Conception, like with an anti-ship missile.

Not at all. The point is that when the absolute worst possible and extreme events happen, things can go horrifically wrong to even the best of designed buildings or crafts.

And there was an evacuation plan. It just wasn't up to the worst possible of events . . . the same way the Twin Towers weren't.

 

[roman50]

Not at all. The point is that when the absolute worst possible and extreme events happen, things can go horrifically wrong to even the best of designed buildings or crafts

This wasn't extreme event at all. This was just an ordinary fire which went unnoticed for too long. As to why it went unnoticed we would want answers. It would be also helpful to know how could be this boat design allowed to float with people on board.

 

[KevinNM]

Not at all. The point is that when the absolute worst possible and extreme events happen, things can go horrifically wrong to even the best of designed buildings or crafts

I don’t think anyone is seriously arguing that this had the best designed evacuation plan. However it was exactly what the regulations required and was approved every year for decades by inspectors.

It’s obvious now that the exits required by the regulations may not really be adequate for this type of vessel, and been suggested that the regulations effectively prohibit more effective approaches towards evacuation of these spaces under these conditions.

 

[rjack321]

I don't have much boating background, so this is probably a stupid question, but please humor me. This boat ended up sinking anyway. Sinking seems very serious, but from my understanding is not instantaneous typically and there were life rafts etc. How would sinking be worse than a fire like this one?

It wouldn't be "worse" but sinking your own boat while to try and extinguish a fire - well you might as well abandon ship if you do that. Which certainly would be better than this - but the crew couldnt even fight the fire in this case.

 

[rjack321]

This wasn't extreme event at all. This was just an ordinary fire which went unnoticed for too long. As to why it went unnoticed we would want answers. It would be also helpful to know how could be this boat design allowed to float with people on board.

So you are one of the 5 surviving crew or were on the neighboring vessel?

If not
You have no idea what started this or how "extreme" it was.

 

[MichaelMc]

In most cases we do not get final reports.

In this case will be an NTSB report and they will be thorough and from that will come recommendations by experts based on facts.

POST EDITED by Moderators

 

[doctormike]

Forgive me if I missed this being posted upthread, but here's an interview with the owner of Truth Aquatics...

 

[NickB-LA]

So you are one of the 5 surviving crew or were on the neighboring vessel?

If not
You have no idea what started this or how "extreme" it was.

Thank you.

This was obviously an extreme event. Nothing like it has happened to this community in its decades of existence regardless of what was the cause and how it transpired. It is inherently extreme by the very definition of the word.

 

[Buoy_A]

Forgive me if I missed this being posted upthread, but here's an interview with the owner of Truth Aquatics...

I was literally one minute away from posting the same link. I don't think it's been presented in this thread yet.

Here's an interesting comment:

Fritzler: "No. On the back deck, that was one of the last things to burn, there [were] some oxygen bottles that the divers use. The rest of the scuba tanks are just air, or what we call Nitrox, which is a higher concentration. It's a 32 percent concentration that divers use, but it's a low oxygen count and they were out on the back deck and that was the last to burn. As far as the accelerant inside the boat, there is no gas, no propane, no diesel. It's all electric."
​

So the owner is putting to bed the theory of the cooking area being the source of the fuel. I originally thought that a cook might have left a propane valve open. But not if everything is electric.