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Today we learn that the majority of the 34 people aboard the Conception, the boat that caught fire early Monday off the coast of Santa Barbara, were residents of the Bay Area and Santa Cruz County – and that the boat had been chartered by an adventure tourism company based in Santa Cruz.
At a press conference on Tuesday, as reported by the SF Chronicle, Sheriff Bill Brown of Santa Barbara County said most of the missing and dead were residents of the Bay Area. He also confirmed reports like this one in the Mercury News that four of the victims were a couple of parents and children from a high school in Santa Cruz. In addition, according to Mercury News, there was "a father and a daughter who were longtime customers of a dive shop in Sunnyvale", as well as a family of five from Stockton. None of the victims has been identified and admission to recovery continues on Tuesday afternoon. A total of 20 bodies were found.
Only five people are believed to have survived the tragedy, which is California's worst maritime disaster of recent memory. All five were crew members on the design. Kristy Finstad, the leader of the group, is also one of the missing. As Chronicle reports, Finstad's Worldwide Diving Adventures of Santa Cruz chartered the 25-meter-long Truth Aquatics ship from Santa Barbara. All passengers on board slept in bunk beds in shared quarters when the fire broke out. There would apparently be only a staircase and a passage to exit the dormitory.
Worldwide Diving Adventures was founded by Finstad's father, Bill Finstad, in the 1970s. On the company's website, it is stated that "Kristy's first dives took place under the arm of Bill, a child in Breathless young after his octopus in the Channel Islands ".
According to the New York Times, a man who has passed the distress call could be heard in a recording saying, "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! I can not breathe!"
The Chronicle met with Scott Jackson, owner of Bay Area Scuba in Burlingame, who said Truth Aquatics' reputation for safety was remarkable and [this] for years and years. They know very well what they do. "
Labor Day is considered the time of scuba diving around the Channel Islands, where the boat was moored and the passengers on board had to be awoken for their scuba diving about 45 minutes before the fire is spreading in the boat. Actor Rob Lowe said he had participated "many times" in the design during diving trips.
Earlier coverage by The Times explained how the five male crew members escaped the flames in an inflatable boat and sought the help of a couple on a nearby boat.
No immediate indication of the cause of the fire has been reported. The boat would have a fire extinguishing system in the engine room, but the ship's central deck was occupied by a galley and sleeping quarters on the lower deck. The Times said on the boat company's website that "the ship also had an integrated on-board barbecue".
As Sheriff Brown said at a press conference Monday: "You have a ship at sea in the middle of the night" and "you could not have asked for a worse situation".
Top image courtesy of Santa Barbara Fire Department
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