Five breathless men soaking wet and shivering in their underwear told the Hansens of a catastrophic fire that had ravaged their 75-foot commercial scuba diving vessel, the Conception, only several hundred feet away.
The men, all crew members, had escaped one of California’s worst maritime disasters in decades, a fire that authorities said Monday appeared to have claimed dozens of lives.
The desperation became clear to Bob Hansen when he stepped outside his cabin and saw the glow of the raging fire in the dark. In an interview, he said that he had seen the Conception completely engulfed in flames, “from stem to stern.”
“I could see the fire coming through holes on the side of the boat,” he said. “There were these explosions every few beats. You can’t prepare yourself for that. It was horrendous.”
In a haunting distress call apparently made from the Conception and recorded by a Ventura County Marine radio channel, a man yells, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” Through the distortion and crackle of the radio call, the man’s desperation is apparent. “I can’t breathe!” he screams.
Rescue crews scoured the waters south of Santa Barbara and west of Los Angeles throughout the day Monday, hoping that they might find survivors from the Conception, which had been on a three-day holiday excursion to the Channel Islands, part of a national park of rugged, pristine coves in the Pacific.
Passengers on the Conception slept in a single room tightly packed with bunk beds below deck, according to a floor plan of the boat on the website of Truth Aquatics, the company that operated the vessel and is based in Santa Barbara. Narrow staircases from the sleeping quarters and showers led to the galley.
It was too early Monday to say whether negligence had played any role in the fire. “The vessel has been in full compliance,” a Coast Guard spokeswoman, Capt. Monica Rochester, said at a news conference. The boat was equipped with a fire suppression system in the engine room. The vessel also had an onboard, built-in barbecue, according to the website.
Rochester said that the crew members were the only known survivors from the Conception and that 34 people were still missing. Many passengers, she said, were presumed to have been sleeping when the fire broke out.
After picking up the mayday call at about 3:15 a.m., the Coast Guard dispatched two helicopter crews and several boats to the scene, where they were met by partner law enforcement agencies.
At the time of the fire, the Conception was moored in Platts Harbor, north of Santa Cruz Island. At sunrise it was smoldering but still afloat, according to a photograph posted by the Santa Barbara Fire Department. It sank later that morning, around 20 yards from shore.
The Hansens’ account testified to the panic in the initial moments after the fire struck.
The crew members who escaped the fire had reached the couple’s boat on an inflatable tender boat.
The Hansens gave clothes to the crew members and helped dry them off. One appeared to have broken his leg, evidently during the escape, and was in tremendous pain. Two other members of the crew went back out toward the Conception to look for passengers who may have made it off the boat; they found no one.
“The fire was too big; there was absolutely nothing we could do,” Bob Hansen said. “You never anticipate something like this. We just felt so helpless.”
Recreational divers in California said Truth Aquatics had a good reputation and appeared careful about safety.
Bill Zhang, owner of Ocean One scuba, which has offered scuba trips on the Conception for the last three years, estimated that there were roughly 15 to 20 diving boats in Southern California and said the three owned by Truth Aquatics were the largest in the Los Angeles area.
“They are the biggest company in California — they should pass everything very easily,” Zhang, 35, said. He noted that there would have been two captains on board the Conception because it had been an overnight trip.
Commercial boats of the Conception’s size must pass Coast Guard inspection annually to renew their license.
Gary Pilecki, a Bay Area-based member of a club that has chartered annual lobster-fishing trips on Truth Aquatics boats since 1982, said that the company’s vessels were always clean and well maintained.
“They’re always doing something to it,” Pilecki, 65, said. “Every time I go by Santa Barbara, I stop and say hello to them, and they’re working on the boat. They’re replacing pipes and repairing things.
“It’s beyond me,” Pilecki said of the fire. “I’m surprised to hear about this.”
Along Santa Barbara Harbor on Monday, where Truth Aquatics is based, residents and visitors alike were speculating about the cause of the fire. Michael Gaffney, 62, who lives across the street from the harbor, said he sees tourists from all over the country and even the world line up for the scuba trips. “It’s horrible. If you’re trapped down below, there’s nowhere to go,” he said.
Promotional materials for the tours hung throughout the dock, featuring photographs of the company’s three boats: “Vision,” “Truth” and “Conception” in the middle. On Monday afternoon, “Truth” sat alone in the harbor.
Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, California, where the local Coast Guard is headquartered, was covered in fog Monday morning. Despite the tragedy offshore, business continued largely as usual along the harbor; out on the water were recreational boats, kayakers and paddle boarders.
Santa Cruz Island, in Santa Barbara County, is one of five islands in Channel Islands National Park, according to the website for the National Park Service, which owns and manages about a quarter of the island. The other three-quarters is owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy. California’s largest island, at about 96 square miles, Santa Cruz Island is about 20 miles from Ventura, the website said.
“Our hearts are with the families and loved ones affected by this tragic incident,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Twitter. “We are eternally grateful for our heroic emergency medical workers that are on site — working to ensure every individual is found.”
Authorities have not released names or nationalities of the missing.
This article originally appeared in
.