Posted on 09/05/2019 3:36:44 PM PDT by atc23
LOS ANGELES — One of the crew members aboard the dive boat Conception hadn’t been asleep long when a noise jolted him awake.
He swung open the door of the wheelhouse — the top level of the 75-foot boat, located just above the galley — and was greeted by flames.
As the fire raged in the predawn hours of Labor Day, the vessel’s captain made a frantic mayday call to the Coast Guard. Then he and four crew members jumped from the wheelhouse and climbed into a dinghy to get help from the Grape Escape, a fishing boat anchored nearby off Santa Cruz Island.
Once aboard, the crew member who had been jolted awake shook as he recounted the horrific story to Grape Escape owner Shirley Hansen. His theory, Hansen said, was that the fire started in the galley, where cellphones and cameras had been plugged in to charge overnight.
(Excerpt) Read more at militarynews.com ...
Bad lithium battery catching fire?
More death by cell phone.
Propane tanks, oxygen tanks. Something leaked and found a spark
It makes sense. It is very sad!
I will be interested in what changes the C.G. makes to the sub-chapter “T” regulations.
May the Divine rest their souls!
Gunner
Maybe a cell battery or a laptop fire?
The bunks had bedding and curtains that would catch fire quickly. There was no fire suppression.
” I’ve charged my dive light and phone with them.”
From the article:
“Most dive boats now require you to charge them externally on the deck,” Strong said. “There are fewer combustibles out there and more firefighting equipment.”
“Propane tanks, oxygen tanks”
I have no personal knowledge but some previous posters said that the Conception did not use propane and used scrubbers to generate Nitrox.
I don’t expect civilians to stand watch, but on boat full of people I would have bet that one or two would be up and about just for the sake of the odds.
There is no propane (maybe a Coleman style camp bottle) and no O2 (except in the first aid kit) aboard the Conception
What a sad situation.
Those who were died were burnt to a crisp. I suspect that there isn’t much of the surrounding area for fire investigators to examine. Very sad situation.
Is there a way you can delete that picture from this thread?
Having inspected the vessel when I was in the Coast Guard, my recollection is the galley was electric. M/V Conception had a stand alone diesel generator for the air compressor, and electrical service. As to a source of pure O2 on the vessel, they may have had a small bottle for medical purposes.
Li-Ion battery failure notion makes sense.
Gunner
That is a question we will have an answer for very shortly. There really isn't much left forensically - it's all ash except the iron. The boat sank later in the morning and took a lot of evidence (maybe) to the bottom where incoming and outgoing tides and current carry it away. We may never recover all of the bodies.
Lithium fire onboard. Not good.
Sad statement that all the crew dives off first thing. Probly in the fine print.
Crew seems to have left them to die.
One crewman did die.
Indeed, the EAN was produced with the membrane system, that’s new. When I was on the boat, you paid for as many Nitrox bottles you wanted and they were blended at the Truth Aquatics shop and loaded onto the boat the night before a trip with a piece of tape and your name written on it
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