This is a professional industry forum & it’s completely reasonable for professionals to discuss the tragic events that happened. It’s going to takes years for the NSTB to release their final report & we don’t have to wait for it to ask questions.
Concerning industry wide safety standards. After a terrible thing like this the USCG or whoever better get their asses back to the drawing board & come up with a better set of standards. 34 people burning to death is inexcusable.
That is why the CG (among other regulators) is called a “tombstone agency” - only after the number of tombstones grows too large to ignore do they produce regulations that help prevent further deaths.
My two guesses:
Beyond firefighting methods or inadequate escape arrangements what about the nature and cause of the fire? What could have happened that not even one person in that compartment was able to escape?
The crew calling in the mayday said he couldn’t breath. It seems like an unusually fast and intense fire compared what might be expected from an engine room or galley fire.
A small galley fire causing a propane tank explosion in the galley that set the whole thing ablaze. All the exits from the passenger compartment go through the galley so they’re blocked from exiting.
According to the press conference this morning, the crew members are getting formal interviews by the uscg and ntsb today, so hopefully some questions will be answered in the next couple days.
Don’t forget a gas powered compressor and oxygen and nitrox tanks. Propane tanks in an enclosed area is a bad idea if that was allowed.
Not any more. They will go under and the crew will go to jail. Let the suing begin…
Coast Guard Suspends Search for Survivors from Sunken Dive Boat
None of a dive boat’s 34 passengers survived a fast-moving fire that sunk it off California’s Santa Cruz Island, officials said on Tuesday, as recovery workers prepared to try to retrieve 14 bodies still believed to be on the vessel or in the ocean.
Five of the six-person crew who were above deck on the bridge managed to escape in an inflatable boat. The single crew member who did not survive appeared to have been sleeping below deck with the passengers when the fire broke out.
Er… propane tank in the galley? Really??? Not allowed on UK workboats, non STCW nor indeed STCW vessels -always on deck with isolators.
I don’t know. I’ve worked on a boat (with a COI) where the galley stove was propane, I’m not sure what the likelihood is off that being the case here.
I just hope it’s not true… the vids and photos are horrific and my heart goes out to the families of all those lost.
No boat - COI or not- can legally have propane in the cabin. That said, if the stove is on - say for coffee or getting a head start on breakfast - then the solenoid is on and propane is being fed to the stove and also to any potential leaks.
Back in the Day any propane stove and tank install I did I made sure the customers ended up with a gas alarm too.
See Chalk Airlines…
I don’t remember for sure where the in-use tank was. We had a spare in a deck box but maybe we had two in the deck box and the hose went from there to the galley.
Gent,
Please remember there are grieving families.
Time and examinations will reveal what cen be learned. In the meanwhile lets drop this as we can’t say or add anything worth printing.
It’s a professional forum for mariners, if we can’t discuss a accident at sea what’s the point of the forum?
This is a professional mariner forum where experienced, professional, mariners discuss ships, shipping, technical and regulatory issues and the good and bad of the industry. There are few better people or groups better qualified to discuss the details and possibilities of a marine accident or incident.
This is not a support group for families or friends where they can go for sympathy.
You can have the propane stove in the cabin, but the tank must be outside, vented overboard, the hole the hose goes through must be gas-tight, and you need a shutoff valve/solenoid outside by the tank.
The more I try to picture it the more I’m certain we had two tanks in the deck box and no tank in the galley.