United States: a diving ship caught fire and there are at least 25 dead and 9 missing

ANGELS.-
A commercial dive ship sank after catching fire near the island of Santa Cruz in Southern Californiaand
there are at least 25 dead and 9 missing, according to Matthew Kroll, captain of the Coast Guard.

The boat, called
Designit is sunk about 18 meters from shore. They traveled there
39 people including six crew members. "Our efforts will continue all night and we will see each other tomorrow morning (Tuesday), but I think we have to prepare for the worst," said Monica Rochester, coastguard captain.

D & # 39; First,
rescuers found four bodies about 145 kilometers from the island of Santa Cruzand later in the day, they removed the bodies of 16 other victims. They also discovered five other people, who could not be recovered due to dangerous conditions.

"We have to prepare for the worst result," Coast Guard captain Monica Rochester warned at a news conference.

The fire broke out on the Conception sailboat at about 03:00 am in front of the island of Santa Cruz, in a series of islets forming the Channel Islands National Park in the Pacific.

Rochester added that five crew members, who were awake when the fire broke out, managed to jump into the water and were rescued by another ship, The Grape Escape. .

Their owners, Bob and Shirley Hansen, told
The New York Times what happened. "He was completely devoured by the flames, from bow to stern," said Bob Hansen, who felt that he was not more than 90 meters from his ship. And he added, "There were explosions, it was horrible."

Aaron Bemis, chief of the coastguard, said: "We do not know that there are survivors." In addition, he stated that the incident occurred at 3.14 (local time). The pbadengers slept and were engulfed by the fire.

On board the Conception, the entire pbadage benefited from a three-day cruise. Yesterday, they had to embark for the return.

AP and AFP