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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – High school students, a science teacher and his daughter, an adventurous marine biologist and a family of five celebrating a birthday are among those presumed dead in a fire that ravaged a ship scuba diving off the south coast of California. dozens of people sleeping under the bridge.
Authorities completed Tuesday's search for Monday's fire survivors before dawn on board the Design. It was assumed that 34 people had died.
The search for other survivors ended on Tuesday. At least 20 bodies have been found and the authorities are continuing their efforts to bring others to the bottom of the ocean. Some may be inside the sunken boat.
A Catholic priest working in the center for the relatives of the missing and presumed dead said he had spoken to 15 to 20 relatives of the people on board.
Fr. Pedro Lopez of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Santa Barbara said on Tuesday that he and other clergy are trying to comfort their loved ones and make sure they do not spend time alone.
Lopez said, "It's just difficult for them to deal with all this."
The only survivors would be the captain and four crew members awake on the upper deck. They jumped from the bow of the boat, swam up to an inflatable boat at the back and headed towards an anchored boat nearby.
But the flames went through the vessel more than 75 feet at such a speed that they blocked both a narrow stairway and an exit hatch leading to the upper decks, leaving virtually no chance of escaping, the police said. authorities.
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 North, last year, said Sheriff Bill Brown of Santa Barbara County.
KNXV-TV, a subsidiary of ABC based in Phoenix, has announced the presence of an Arizona couple, Patricia Beitzinger and Neal Baltz.
"They went to heaven to do something that they loved together," said Neal's father, John Baltz, at the station.
the Design, based in Santa Barbara Harbor, belonged to Truth Aquatics, a Santa Barbara-based company founded in 1974. A commemorative memorial was quickly erected in the harbor when people in mourning came to pay homage.
Actor Rob Lowe tweeted that he had been aboard the ship several times. Dave Reid, who runs an underwater camera manufacturing company with his wife, Terry Schuller, also traveled on the Design and two other boats from the Truth Aquatics fleet and said he considered these three vehicles among the best and safest.
Schuller said the company's crews had always followed the safety instructions at the beginning of each trip.
"They tell you where the lifejackets are, how to put them … the exits, where are the fire extinguishers, on every trip," said Schuller.
The Coast Guard Archives indicates that the owners of the vessel quickly corrected all security breaches of the past five years.
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