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The fire on board the Conception, which resulted in scuba diving enthusiasts on a three-day tour of California, blocked any escape, investigators said.
It quickly spread and the flames blocked both exits from the lower deck, where passengers and a crew member were sleeping in tight spots, said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.
The flames crossed the boat of sleepy divers so quickly that it seems that none of the 34 people under the bridge could escape, authorities said Tuesday. This, while they ended their search without finding anyone who was still missing alive from the tragedy of Labor Day off the south coast of California.
It is not known what triggered the fire.
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Jennifer Homendy, a member of the National Transportation Safety Bureau, said Tuesday that she was "100% confident". Investigators would find the cause of the fire aboard the Conception, which caught fire before dawn and collapsed near the island of Santa Cruz.
She also stated that the NTSB planned to stay on the scene for up to 10 days and would review safety measures on board the vessel, such as the presence of fire extinguishers, and interview survivors, first responders, divers and others.
The captain and the four crew members who woke up on the upper decks jumped to the bow of the ship, swam up to an inflatable boat at the stern and left behind. Directed to a nearby anchored ship.
Among the people suspected of being dead, there are five members of a family and the marine biologist who directs the dive visit.
A DNA will be needed to identify all the victims, and the authorities will use the same quick scan tool that has helped identify the victims of the deadly fire that devastated the city of Paradise, California from the North last year, the sheriff said.
The officials did not reveal the names of the victims, but Brown said he heard anecdotally that they were teenagers at 60. He added that most of them seemed to come from northern California, including Santa Cruz, San Jose and San Francisco Bay.
The 75-foot Design was the last day of a three-day excursion into the chain of rugged and windswept islands that form the Channel Islands National Park in the Pacific Ocean, at the same time. 39, west of Los Angeles. The fire broke out shortly after Monday morning, when the boat was moored in the port of Platt off the island of Santa Cruz.
The sheriff said the 34 victims were trapped on the bottom deck of the boat when the flames quickly blocked a narrow stairway and an escape hatch leading to the upper decks.
"The crew member who was not rescued seems to have fallen asleep in the sleeping area downstairs with the passengers," Brown said.
It appears that the crew sent several Mayday calls, including a call from the Conception in which a crew member could be heard that he could not breathe.
Another came from the Grape Escape fishing boat after the crew reached it in their little boat. One of the ship's owners said he heard explosions as he watched the building burn about 100 meters away. Brown said the explosions could have exploded diving tanks or propane tanks.
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The Conception, based in the Port of Santa Barbara, was owned by Truth Aquatics, a Santa Barbara-based company founded in 1974. A commemorative monument in the harbor quickly grew as grieving people came to pay homage.
The Coast Guard Archives indicates that the owners of the vessel quickly corrected all security breaches of the past five years.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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