Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

[rjack321]

This is not, strictly speaking, true. The Conception and her sister ship the Vision do have pocket doors at the top of the set of stairs leading from the dive deck to the salon. These doors are closed when the boats are docked and locked with nobody aboard. In over 15 trips on the Vision - most of them with Finstad's Worldwide Diving Adventures - I've never seen them closed at a mooring or during operations, even when the weather is really miserable.

The emergency egress from the bunk room comes up at the aft end of the salon, right where those always-open doors are. That exit is as close to being "outside" as you can get without needing to make it sealed enough to be on the weather deck. The primary entrance to the bunk room is at the forward end of the salon, to the starboard of the galley.

If the main deck of the boat were fully involved in flame, neither exit would allow for a safe egress from the vessel. I suppose you could call this a design flaw, but realistically you can't address every contingency. This boat clearly went from zero to fully involved in a time period that would be beyond all but the most extreme safety planner's expectations.

As I've pondered what would have made a difference - which I've spent a lot of time doing over the past few days given the number of nights I've spent in those bunks - I think about the only way you would have had a chance is if there were a way to get through the hull directly from the bunk room without going up to the main deck. That's a pretty impractical way to construct an emergency exit due to the sealing that would be required, but it would allow a direct exit in the event of a fire. Given it's a plywood hull without glass, even an axe might have made a difference, allowing them to create an opening and get outside, though that'd take a lot of time when there wasn't much to be had.

My money is on the lithium battery theory for how this fire would have started. It's the kind of ignition source that would be most likely to kick off when virtually no activity was going on aboard the vessel, and it gets hot enough fast enough to involve the whole boat as quickly as appears to have been the case.

Could be something else, of course, but that seems the most likely cause to me.

The interview posted many pages ago said there were no doors which is what I was going off of. I understood there was a way to secure the boat when nobody was aboard. I would be surprised if the COI allowed those "doors" to be used with passengers aboard. Or that anyone would close them at night at this time of year.

I know everyone is focused on lithium batteries but the galley was all electric, plus I understood the generator ran at night. Plus electrical fires are statistically the most likely on any vessel. A wiring issue behind a cabinet (similar to the fire described by @Wookie on his vessel) could just as easily smolder until it flashed over. With windows and doors open, a photo ionization smoke detector not picking up smoldering smoke even under the best of circumstances, it's not implausible that this started entirely independent of any lithium ions or chargers.

 

[Diver2019]

A picture is worth.......a million words? Wonder if this picture is correct....

 

[flyingron]

Hi
The propane tank would not explode by itself. If punctured, it would BLEVY (shoot fire like a jet engine until the mixture was between LEL and UEL (Lower Explosive Limit and Upper Explosive Limit). In the case of a propane tank, that did not have an external detonation device or other catastrophic scenario, the mixture inside is too rich for it to explode.

The term is BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) and what you describe is not a BLEVE. A BLEVE doesn't need involve a leak nor does it involve "shooting fire." It's a rapid explosure caused when heat applied to the exterior of the tank causes the liquid to boil enough to the point of an exploding pressure in the tank headspace.[

 

[Wookie]

A picture is worth.......a million words? Wonder if this picture is correct....


View attachment 538565

Doesn't look right to me, as it does not show an escape hatch above 10U and 27U. More "news" I guess.

That, and it shows an escape hatch out of the forepeak tank, not the shower room. Although there had to be one out of the shower room as well somewhere.

But the one out of the berthing area has been described as back by the exit from the salon/eating area. Which makes sense if it is above bunk 10U/27U

 

[benha]

Oh I completely agree that there's a strong likelihood of other sources of ignition, and that a smoldering wiring issue could be the cause. It just seems less likely to me.

One "failing" of these boats if you want to call it that is that they haven't really got a good system set up for people to charge batteries. When it used to be lead acids and NiCads it wasn't as big an issue, but as the world moves to more dangerous batts it would make sense to construct a non-flammable closet of some kind that has a good, high-amperage connection to the electrical service and shelves where you can put your charger and your batteries. As it is they get charged on the book case, on the galley seats, and on the table area above the ice maker. None of these is well suited to the task.

 

[benha]

Doesn't look right to me, as it does not show an escape hatch above 10U and 27U. More "news" I guess.

That, and it shows an escape hatch out of the forepeak tank, not the shower room. Although there had to be one out of the shower room as well somewhere.

Not at all correct.

 

[Lorenzoid]

A picture is worth.......a million words? Wonder if this picture is correct....

I'm not much of a mariner, but isn't what's labeled "Kitchen" technically the galley, and what's labeled "Galley" technically the salon?

And where is the stern escape hatch in the berthing compartment, er, "Sleeping quarters," that everyone has been talking about?

 

[roakey]

This may help you with the layout:

From the legal thread...

Roak

 

[cerich]

Oh I completely agree that there's a strong likelihood of other sources of ignition, and that a smoldering wiring issue could be the cause. It just seems less likely to me.

One "failing" of these boats if you want to call it that is that they haven't really got a good system set up for people to charge batteries. When it used to be lead acids and NiCads it wasn't as big an issue, but as the world moves to more dangerous batts it would make sense to construct a non-flammable closet of some kind that has a good, high-amperage connection to the electrical service and shelves where you can put your charger and your batteries. As it is they get charged on the book case, on the galley seats, and on the table area above the ice maker. None of these is well suited to the task.

and this boat had outlets in berthing..

 

[markmud]

The term is BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) and what you describe is not a BLEVE. A BLEVE doesn't need involve a leak nor does it involve "shooting fire." It's a rapid explosure caused when heat applied to the exterior of the tank causes the liquid to boil enough to the point of an exploding pressure in the tank headspace.[

I was trained differently. But things change. Your description is correct at the end of the spewing-fire cycle. While venting gas, a cooling effect keeps the tank from exploding.

As I said, things change, today you are probably correct.

markm