Oxnard (US): Eight people were killed and more than two dozen missing and feared dead Monday after a scuba diving boat caught fire and sank off the California coast, with passengers trapped below deck by the roaring blaze.
Fire crews in helicopters, small boats and a Coast Guard cutter battled the fierce pre-dawn fire on the 75-foot (23-metre) ‘Conception’, which had been on a diving excursion around Santa Cruz Island, just west of Santa Barbara in southern California.
But the blaze and intense heat prevented them from breaching the vessel’s hull to search for survivors before the craft sank, the Coast Guard said. A dense fog further complicated rescue efforts.
“Four victims have been recovered thus far as deceased,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told a news conference.
“Rescue and recovery efforts on the scene have located an additional four victims on the ocean floor in close proximity to the vessel,” Brown said, while 26 people are missing.
Five ‘Conception’ crew members were awake and jumped into the water when flames burst out around 3.15am (1015 GMT), Coast Guard Captain Monica Rochester said, putting the total number of people aboard the boat at 39. The five were rescued by people on a pleasure craft called the ‘Grape Escape’.
Shirley Hansen, who was on the ‘Grape Escape’ with her husband Bob, told the ‘Los Angeles Times’ they were asleep when they heard pounding on the side of their fishing boat. The crew, some only in underwears and two with leg injuries, had retrieved a dinghy and paddled 200 yards to the Hansens’ boat.
Shirley Hansen said the men were distraught – one had a girlfriend below the deck on the ‘Conception’ – and two of the men paddled back to look for survivors, but found none.
Rochester said all the passengers were believed to have been sleeping at the time. The ‘Conception’ had a crowded cabin with three-high bunks below decks.
The ‘Conception’ sank 20 yards (metres) off the island’s northern shore, leaving only its bow exposed. US news outlets released audio of a distress call in which a crew member on the boat yells, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” and “I can’t breathe!”
A Coast Guard operator asks the man if the passengers can get off the boat and if the crew has fire extinguishers, but the response is inaudible.
AFP