Tragic. Hard to wrap your head around this one. The boat looked to be well maintained… goes to show the importance of good housekeeping and watch standing procedures, rounds, etc. Thoughts are with all involved.
Read the Facebook comments on gcaptain as the fool I am, a lot of stupidity but some wrote that it was an propane fire/explosion in the galley that caused this. Anyone know if that is correct?
They haven’t officially disclosed what the cause of the fire was at this time. We do know it occurred around 0300.
I hate to assume, but most likely around 0300 all the passengers were still sleeping and the boat was most likely planning on setting up for a dive in the morning.
Most, if not all the crew most likely berthed behind the wheelhouse. At the very least the mate, or as the local industry refers to a mate the 'second ticket ’ was on watch.
I haven’t seen or read yet whether they were on anchor or underway when this went down. If they were anchored i really doubt more than one crew was up.
I saw on the local news today a family of a crew member saying propane. I immediately would assume propane grill. If thats the case i thought propane grills weren’t allowed?
If it was an explosion and if the vessel was engulfed in flames as quickly as accounts are saying, its not hard to envision all these different variables and what-ifs turning into the horrible disaster that happened today.
What a death trap.
Their description of this boat mentions a “Onboard built-in Bar-B-Que”
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From the LA Times: Once the fire started, it was too late for many on board the Conception
At the bow end of the bunk room was a curving staircase that led up to the galley area. Toward the stern, an escape hatch was situated above one of the bunks and led to the salon deck, which included the galley.
“It’s on a ceiling of the bunk room or the floor of the galley,” said Bruce Rausch, 69, a veteran dive master in Orange County and a retired San Onofre nuclear engineer who’d been on more than a dozen dive trips aboard the Conception. “All you have to do is get up to a bunk and keep going up and you use the bunk as ladders.”
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Probably this was the hatch, although it is not too big, as already shown earlier. However, there seems to be some structure/object beneath it, hard to tell what it is. If so it isn’t clearly marked as such. May be the deck above was already ablaze. Were the lights out below due to the fire and was there an emergency lighting system? So many questions remain. Horrible accident.
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Two of the questions, did they conduct a drill before departure & were the passengers aware of the alternative escape hatch?
That might not be an escape hatch. It’s not marked as such. It looks more like it might be an access to the space between the overhead and the deck above. There is no wiring or piping visible so presumably it’s hidden by the overhead panels.
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Easier said than done. Even if the hatch in the open berthing was a means of escape, it might have been mentioned in the pre-departure briefing but if it was the case, I doubt the passengers were trained to physically climb out through it.
If they woke up blinded by smoke with the stairwell exit blocked by fire and the entire deck above them in flames they stood little chance of escape.
Rausch might have been answering a question about the layout of the escape rather than about the circumstance at the time
If that’s the case it sounds like what he is describing is an escape above the passageway between the bunks, reachable by using the bunks as a ladder, rather than one above one of the bunks.
Even in a confusing situation the overhead escape might have been useful if the crew could have opened it from above and assisted the passengers but it sounds like that was not the case.
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It sounds to me like he’s describing the picture I highlighted. He says it’s above one of the bunks. Regardless, if it also goes to the galley and there was a galley fire then it was effectively useless.
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Talking about boat fires in general, and not this tragedy in particular:
Smoke is the major threat in interior compartments, particularly on vessels with Class-A materials in abundance. Smoke builds up quite quickly. It builds up near the overhead first and then rapidly descends to deck level. If an escape hatch is in the overhead, it is located precisely where the smoke and heat will build up first, hiding the hatch and choking anyone trying to find it. The heat can build up quickly, driving away anyone determined enough to search for the hatch in the smoke.
The best way to deal with the situation is to hit the deck and crawl for an exit stairwell. But people need to be well trained for this, and in the dark it is difficult to detect which direction the exit lies. That is why on airliners there are lights in the cabin deck leading you to the exits. Also, the sheer number of people trying to quickly find an exit in a cramped passageway has caused shipboard fire tragedies in the past.
Again, I’m not saying any of this played a part in the tragedy. It’s just something we professionals need to remind ourselves.of when reviewing our fire plans.
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Mariners learn this in fire school but an untrained person might suffocate running around blinded by smoke while groping for an exit. Even a trained professional would have a hard time crawling to a single egress point in the midst of nearly 3 dozen panicking passengers in a dark smoke filled space. That’s a special kind of hell.
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I don’t see how you could get 6 people out of there safely in an emergency. Let alone 35+. I can’t understand how this design is deemed safe for passengers.
Anyone know anything about the fire fighting capabilities of the vessel or the training of the crew?
Most of these vessels are crewed up with a capt, mate (both most likely at the 100 grt level because its a vessel less than 100 grt) and two non credentialed deckhands. 5th person is the cook. If they are crewed up differently than how i mentioned they are an exception not the rule for this industry.
Doubtful they have had any formal fire fighting training because they aren’t subjected to stcw.
They probably had a fixed firefighting system for the engine room and other than that a couple hoses with a fire pump and portable extinguishers. Call this speculation based on my experience with similair vessels in the past.
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It’s a well run company with good crews. Why don’t you let the professionals get to the bottom of what happened I’m sure they will make a statement soon. Please don’t place blame on crew or vessel unless you where present.
I was living in SB in the mid 1980’s and thought about applying there for a captain’s job. The boats were extremely clean and well maintained. The captain who gave me the tour of one of the boats had started out with the company as a dive master and came off as very competent.
There was a statement at 1000 local today that did not answer any questions. I would expect it to take a while till they find the root cause. If i have come off like im blaming the crew, that wasn’t my intent. Like i said earlier i have worked with folks who have worked there and this company always has had a stellar reputation of having good boats and crews.
All i am saying is, for me growing up in the charter boat world and now being on the commercial side of the industry, all our standards should be the same for safety and training regardless of the size of vessel or stcw.
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I’m not placing blame on the crew at all was just curious about their qualifications and training. Everything points to the the vessel being very well maintained. However, I stand by my thoughts that having that many people in that small of a space with poor egress options is a terrible design. Not the companies fault though, that’s what the regulations permit.