Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

[KathyV]

The NTSB will issue a preliminary report in 10 days but it will be too soon to include information about the cause of the fire:

NTSB says there will be a lengthy investigation into cause of deadly California boat fire

 

[Ron Lee]

It's amazing to me that we can get 80 some pages into a 4 day old accident and false issues like having 02 tanks aboard are still brought up. It would be the same to me if someone came on here and posted "the hatches were locked"

Yeah, it's a lot of pages to go thru, but if one is going to opine as to the cause, shouldn't one educate themselves beforehand?

OK back to the thread

If someone were to place what are considered factual aspects at this point into the very first post...and people knew to look there instead of trying to decipher facts from 800 posts, it might help.

 

[K_girl]

I remembered something about my trip in 2006. There was a hatch above the bunk near the stern area and I thought it was very odd that you had to climb into an upper bunk bed to get out. The safety briefing was not done downstairs in this area, it would have been too crowded, but these hatches may have been mentioned in the briefing upstairs. On that trip, I made it a point to find it. There was no way to lock the stairways near the bow because there was no door. So using the words "blocked" and/or "locked" for each of these exits would be speculation at this point. Here is a picture of what I believe is the escape hatch at the stern area (furthest from stairs):

Conception Hatch

• K_girl
• Sep 3, 2019
• 1

This is a picture on board the sister-ship, Vision - it shows where the bunk escape hatch comes out. I think it might be the same layout for the Conception. If I have this wrong, please let me know. I am going off memory here.

Dining Escape Hatch Area

• K_girl
• Sep 4, 2019

 

[Ron Lee]

Holy moley. 2.5 minutes from smoking to fully involved.

That time should start when the first smoke appears which is not on this video.

 

[cerich]

That time should start when the first smoke appears which is not on this video.

ok, it went from smoking moderately with no fire visible to almost comply engulfed in about a minute and a half.

If you don't feel this shows how quickly the fire can get bad..best video I could find.

 

[ChrisM]

The NTSB will issue a preliminary report in 10 days but it will be too soon to include information about the cause of the fire:

NTSB says there will be a lengthy investigation into cause of deadly California boat fire

Well if nothing else, hopefully this exonerates the crew (as I think it will turn out) and people can stop blaming them from jumping from a burning ship

 

[KathyV]

I am sure that there were stories like this written after every other major maritime disaster like Titanic, Lusitania, and Andrea Doria, but here is an article about a lucky California diver who had to cancel his Labor Day trip on the Conception due to surgery...

As a Chicago girl I should have also included the SS Eastland in my list of maritime disasters of modern history. It was a large sight-seeing cruise that capsized in the Chicago River and killed 844 crew and passengers, including entire families.

How The Titanic Caused Chicago's Worst Manmade Disaster – And Killed 844 People

 

[pauldw]

ok, it went from smoking moderately with no fire visible to almost comply engulfed in about a minute and a half.

If you don't feel this shows how quickly the fire can get bad..best video I could find.

Yeah, that was an informative video! And I absolutely cannot grasp why people stayed on the boat, or stood around it while the fire was raging.

 

[Marie13]

As a Chicago girl I should have also included the SS Eastland in my list of maritime disasters of modern history. It was a large sight-seeing cruise that capsized in the Chicago River and killed 844 passengers, including entire families.

I remember seeing on the original WTTW (Chicago PBS station) documentary on the Eastland made back in the 90s (maybe?) that one couple was late because the wife took too long getting ready. After they missed the Eastland, the husband never complained about how long it took his wife to get ready again. A new documentary was aired by WTTW in July near the anniversary.

The Eastland is the greatest maritime disaster on the Great Lakes.

 

[cerich]

Yeah, that was an informative video! And I absolutely cannot grasp why people stayed on the boat, or stood around it while the fire was raging.

most people not trained will in any emergency, even among trained people it is amazing how many will fail to take action to save their own or others lives. It's actually an interesting study