Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

[KevinNM]

We're discussing how to do that in the back room....

There isn’t that much we know for sure, but there are some commonly repeated ‘news’ ‘facts’ that we know are untrue. Clarifying those might be a good start.

 

[KevinNM]

Condolances to all.

One suggestion for improvement would be to replace the flamable wooden cabinet above the escape hatch with one that is fireproof. The egress path to daylight works best when it constructed from fire resistant materials.

Is there really that much difference in usability of a burning cabinet or a 600 degree hot stainless steel one? My feeling is that you need to have the emergency path lead you into a different room. Which is apparently not allowed with current coast guard regulations, currently it must be a vertical exit and it must not cross a watertight compartment.

 

[ChrisM]

We're discussing how to do that in the back room....

Well that assumes people would read it prior to jumping the the last page and posting things that have been established probably 40 (!!) pages ago.

Me of little faith

 

[lionfish-eater]

Is there really that much difference in usability of a burning cabinet or a 600 degree hot stainless steel one? My feeling is that you need to have the emergency path lead you into a different room. Which is apparently not allowed with current coast guard regulations, currently it must be a vertical exit and it must not cross a watertight compartment.

Simply to prevent colapse on top of the hatch.

 

[lizardqueen]

Just saw the comments in the news today about the escape hatch. The investigators should remember that divers as a group are competent and resourceful people. I think if any one person in the bunk room was awake enough to smell smoke they would've yelled out to the room. If the stairs were flaming, out of 30 or so people SOMEONE would've known about the escape hatch, since there were repeaters on board. The noxious fumes analysis is scary beyond belief. Love and strength to the crew.

 

[bubffm]

we may all be resourceful and competent. If you’r stuck in that hole with 35 others and escape routes are blocked, panic etc. all resourcefulness will not help you.

I would be ery surpised if these operations will continue unchallenged.

 

[ckubrick2]

Getting to the emergency hatch was difficult, she said, adding they couldn’t find the light switches in the dark.

“You have to climb up a ladder and across the top bunk and then push a wooden door up,” she said. “It was a tight space. We couldn’t turn the light on.”

This has been worrisome for me and a lot of other people. At first I though the fire scape hatch was a bad design because it leads to the galley, the same as the stairs, so any major fire in the galley traps everyone downstair. This was with the assumption that in an orderly evacuation, if the fire was smaller and just covering main the exit stairs, all 34 divers would be able to escape through the hatch. However, after seeing the galley pictures and video on this thread and seeing how cramped the design is, and after reading this impression of the investigator, I wonder if its just not humanly possible to evacuate 34 people through that hatch even in somewhat better circumstances before they succumb to the gases. Furthermore, given the amount of people in such a small space, with the main exit on fire, panic and low visibility could lead to a human crush event, further trapping the people downstairs. Like everyone else this is just my layman opinion, but the escape hatch on top of the bunk has just never sat well with me, just looking at it makes me feel uncomfortable.

 

[Wookie]

Well that assumes people would read it prior to jumping the the last page and posting things that have been established probably 40 (!!) pages ago.

Me of little faith

That's why we're discussing it instead of doing it. Like telling pax on a dive boat what to do, most won't listen and some don't care....

 

[johndiver999]

US flagged passenger vessels are required to maintain a watch 24 hours a day when passengers are onboard. That person must be master or mate.

Thanks, so without info to contradict the idea, we can assume a crew member was awake when the fire started. We also seem to have established that there was very little or no potential for explosive gases (like propane or gasoline) or even pure oxygen inside the vessel.

So we don’t suspect the fire started with an explosion, but there may have been subsequent ones much later as the vessel burned up.

So where do we suspect the watch officer was located at the start of the fire?

It is my understanding there are 3 decks, the births in the bottom, the galley above that and then a third cabin above the galley where the wheelhouse and crews quarters are situated?

Is that the general lay out?

If the fire started in the lowest deck, is it reasonable to suspect that it could get bad before a crew member located 2 floors above might notice smoke or something? Would a
Smoke detector alarm be audible from two floors above?

I’m not suggesting anything, just trying to better understand the basic parameters of the situation as best we can.

I’ve seen rather small electrical problems on boats make some smoke, but the fumes and the odor is pretty overpowering in a tight space, and this doesn’t require any type of significant fire.

Can we assume an electrical fire of significant proportion could generate lethal fumes or ones that might incapacitate sleeping victims , before an out of control fire even occurs??

 

[markmud]

That's why I mentioned my ignorance of that fact several times in my post that you quoted. Thanks for the clarification.

I don't think HP 21% would have helped put the fire out however.

As the system was explained to me by Conception and Vision crew members, they did not bank any breathing gases. It was a demand system. They bled the system after every tank filling evolution.

Things change.

Could Truth Aqautics have remodeled their tank filling system since I was aboard? I don't think so.

Their NuVair systems are between 3.5 and 4 years old.

The system on Conception was similar to most of the dive boats in SoCal. Some do or did partial pressure blending, but not many.

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