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Authorities said Friday that they thought the smoke inhalation had caused the death of 34 people aboard the Diving Design Boat, raising new questions about the exact location of the fire and about its extension.
The fire was declared early Monday morning during a dive expedition organized on Labor Day weekend, trapping the sleeping victims. Five crew members who were over the bridge at that time were able to escape and said that the fire was too intense for anyone to go out.
A source familiar with the crew's accounts told the Times that a few hours before the fire, the passengers had taken part in a night dive. A member of the crew who was straightening the galley and the refectory climbed to the wheelhouse at about 2:35.
Before the crew member ascended, he verified that the stove was cold and that flammable materials were stored, depending on the source, who was not allowed to comment publicly and spoke under the guise of anonymity.
Some time before 3:15 pm, the crew member heard a noise and thought that someone on the boat had stumbled. The flames prevented it to enter the kitchen, said the source. The passengers and a crew member were in the sleeping area, one level below the kitchen.
During the interrogation with National Transportation Safety Board investigators, team members assumed that the fire had started in the seating area of the kitchen.
"The galley zone was on fire," said NTSB Commissioner Jennifer Homendy, reporting what the crew member had said to the investigators. "They tried to enter through the double door but could not enter because of the flames. They tried to access the front galley through the windows, but the windows would not open.
A boater who helped the surviving crew members that morning said that one of them thought that the fire had declared in the office , where cell phones and cameras had been plugged in to charge overnight.
The authorities have not specified whether, until now, the investigation had revealed a specific place or cause. But the source said that, according to the crew report, the fire had not declared in the engine room of Conception.
A preliminary investigation into the fire suggested serious safety concerns aboard the Design, including the absence of a "roaming night watchman" who must remain awake and alert passengers in case fire or other hazards, according to several police sources. familiar with the investigation.
The investigation also asked whether the crew had received adequate training and whether the passengers had received a full security briefing, the sources said on condition of anonymity because they did not had not been allowed to comment publicly on the case.
The owners of the boat, Truth Aquatics, refused the maintenance requests. In a statement, the company said, "As a member of the NTSB working group committee, we can not comment on the details of this active investigation. We are committed to finding accurate answers as quickly as possible. "
In an interview with KEYT-TV, Conception's owner, Glen Fritzler, said the team "did its best" to save the passengers, but that the fire was too intense.
Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives join the investigation into the fire. National Response Team members, consisting of fire investigators, special constables, mapping specialists, fire protection engineers, electrical engineers, forensic chemists and others, accumulate more than 250 years of experience in fire investigation.
"Our main role is to determine the origins and cause of the fire," said Carlos Canino, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles control center. "We do not set a time limit for the duration of our presence here."
Sheriff Bill Brown of Santa Barbara County, who is also a coroner, said that a pathologist had determined that no traditional autopsy would be performed on the victims.
"Our pathologist is convinced that the victims were victims of smoke inhalation," he said. "It will probably be the cause of death."
Brown said he consulted with local, state, and federal authorities before making the decision not to perform an autopsy. An external examination and toxicological samples were taken from each victim, he said. The final decision on the causes of death will not come until a formal cause of fire is established, he added.
"We are trying to find out what happened," he said. "A criminal element to that is always a possibility. At this point, no one has been criminally charged. This has not turned into a criminal investigation at this stage. "
Coroner's officers used a rapid DNA analysis tool that compares the genetic profiles of victims to
Family samples collected with the help of a cotton swab. DNA samples were collected from relatives across the country and from as far as India and Japan. FBI offices around the world helped collect samples, Brown said, adding that samples were still on their way to Santa Barbara.
Brown also published the names of nine people killed. The victims identified on Friday were between 26 and 62 years old. The 34 people killed in the fire are from all over the United States and from all over the world, Brown said at a press conference.
The victims are: Raymond Scott Chan, 59, from Los Altos, California; Yulia Krashennaya, 40, from Berkeley; Allie Kurtz, 26, from Santa Barbara; Caroline "Carrie" McLaughlin, 35, from Oakland; Marybeth Guiney, 51, from Santa Monica; Justin Carroll Dignam, 58, from Anaheim; Daniel Garcia, 46, from Berkeley; Ted Strom, 62, from Germantown, Tennessee; and Wei Tan, 26, from Goleta, California.
The authorities located 33 of the 34 victims.
"We mourn their loss," said Brown about the victims, "and we want to assure those they leave that we will continue to work tenaciously to recover all the victims, determine their deaths and investigate the cause." from this terrible fire. and the loss of life, with the hope that this future
tragedies will be avoided. "
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