Feinstein introduces bill to bolster boat safety after tragedy
Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced a bill Thursday to bolster boat safety after the 75-foot Conception burst aflame overnight and sank on a Labor Day weekend diving expedition off the Channel Islands, killing 34 of its 39 passengers and crew.
“The Conception boat fire was a tragedy that could have been prevented had stronger safety measures been in place,” Feinstein, D- Calif., said in a statement Thursday. “We can’t allow this to happen again.”
Many of those lost in the tragedy were from the Bay Area and Santa Cruz.
The Small Passenger Vessel Safety Act that Feinstein is proposing along with Reps. Salud Carbajal, D- Santa Barbara, and Julia Brownley, DThousand Oaks, would establish stricter standards for fire alarms, escape routes for passengers and the recharging of electronic devices.
The lawmakers noted that after the fire, which remains under investigation, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a Marine Safety Information Bulletin to reduce fire risk by advising boat
ers to limit the use of extension cords and charging of lithium-ion batteries like those in cameras and laptop computers.
They also noted that a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report indicated that fire alarms in the passenger sleeping quarters did not alert crew above deck. The report indicated passengers were trapped below deck, with flames engulfing the access way and a small emergency hatch that both led to a “salon” deck.
Maritime disaster experts, however, said it was another finding in the NTSB’s preliminary report that likely will prove to be the key factor in the tragedy: The entire crew was asleep when the fire broke out. Passenger vessels are supposed to have a crew member on watch at all times.
The preliminary report indicated the fire erupted quickly and already was burning out of control on the salon deck between the wheelhouse and the passenger bunks when a crew member awoke and noticed it. Crew members told investigators the flames prevented them from reaching the passengers. The captain and four crew members escaped. A sixth crew member who was sleeping below with the passengers perished with them.
Santa Barbara County’s sheriff said the dead appeared to have succumbed to smoke inhalation before the boat burned to the waterline and sank.
The proposed bill would require small vessels to have at least two escape routes to different parts of the boat, something that potentially could have allowed either the Conception’s passengers to escape or the crew to reach them.
It also would require safety standards for handling and storing cameras, phones and other electronic devices powered by lithium-ion batteries, which can overheat and start fires. Divers who had been aboard the Conception said after the tragedy that it was common on trips for numerous devices to be plugged into the boat’s electrical system overnight to recharge.
The bill also would establish stricter standards for interconnected fire alarm systems, the lawmakers said.
The Conception, custom built in 1981, was one of three dive boats run by Santa Barbara charter outfit Truth Aquatics. Coast Guard records indicated it passed recent safety inspections.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Conception was among more than 300 small craft built before 1996 that were exempted from safety requirements for new vessels mandating larger escape hatches and illuminated exit signs, though it was unclear whether that would have made a difference in the tragedy. Older vessels often are grandfathered if meeting updated regulations is impractical.
But lawmakers now are rethinking that.
“We must no longer allow older vessels to operate under antiquated regulations at the expense of our public safety,” Carbajal said.