34 presumed dead after boat fire
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — No one likely escaped the flames that tore through a boat packed with scuba divers, with all 34 people sleeping below deck presumed dead during a Labor Day weekend expedition off the Southern California coast, authorities said Tuesday as they called off the search for survivors.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said no one has been found alive after the fire engulfed the dive boat early Monday. Flames blocked an escape hatch and a stairwell leading to the sleeping area crowded with passengers on a recreational scuba diving trip.
Only five crew members sleeping on the top deck were able to escape by jumping into the water and steering a small boat to safety. The fire that engulfed the Conception is believed to have killed all 33 passengers and one crew member who was below deck, the sheriff said. Investigators have not yet determined how the fire erupted.
Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig told reporters that the victims' relatives “will rely on us to do everything in our power to find out happened aboard that vessel in the last moments of these family members' lives. That's our commitment.”
The bodies of 20 victims have been recovered, and divers have seen between four and six others in the sunken wreck age, the sheriff said. Authorities are trying to stabilize the boat that sank in about 60 feet of water so divers can recover those remains.
Most need to be identified by DNA analysis and officials are collecting samples from families, Brown said.
Five members of one family perished. Susana Rosas posted on social media that her three daughters, their father and stepmother were on board.
Kristy Finstad, 41, leader of the scuba tour and co-owner of Worldwide Diving Adventures, which chartered the boat, was identified in a Facebook post by her brother, Brett Harmeling of Houston.
Pacific Collegiate School in Santa Cruz said some of its students and their parents were on the boat.
The sheriff says the majority of the victims appear to have been from Northern California, including Santa Cruz, San Jose and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The boat had departed Santa Barbara Harbor on Saturday and the fire broke out about 3 a.m. Monday while it was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, about 90 miles west of Los Angeles. The crew appeared to quickly call for help.
“The call was garbled, it was not that clear, but we were able to get some information out of it to send vessels,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Barney said.