Officials now think they may have a clue about what started the tragic fire on the Conception, the 75-foot dive boat that burned and sank off Southern California on Labor Day, killing all 34 people who were sleeping on the lower deck: Too many electronic devices, many with lithium batteries, that were plugged into outlets in the boat’s galley where the fire started.
Even as the Conception investigation continued, the Coast Guard urged boat owners to reduce fire hazards by limiting the charging of lithium-ion batteries on board.
Here’s an extensive update on what we know so far from the Los Angeles Times:
SANTA BARBARA —
When the Conception first hit the water in the early 1980s, the personal electronics revolution was decades away.
Divers who boarded the 75-foot boat for excursions to the Channel Islands brought film cameras. There were no smartphones to plug in or the array of other electronic devices now used to take underwater photos.
But when the vessel set off decades later on its fateful Labor Day weekend voyage, those on board needed power — a lot of it. And they plugged their equipment into a series of outlets concealed in the back of foam-filled, L-shaped benches in the ship’s galley.
Those outlets are now the focus of an intense investigation as federal officials try to determine the cause of the worst maritime disaster in modern California history, a fire that swept through the dive boat and killed 34 people.
The Conception was raised from the depths of Platts Harbor and is now at the Port Hueneme naval facility, where the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives national incident team of leading fire experts are examining the power, fuel and electrical systems, federal officials said.
As the investigation continues, the U.S. Coast Guard took the unprecedented step of recommending that owners of passenger vessels immediately urge crews to “reduce potential fire hazards and consider limiting the unsupervised charging of lithium-ion batteries and extensive use of power strips and extension cords.”
Divers and others in the boat world said the electrical systems of boats such as the Conception have been put to the test in recent years as the number of electronics brought on board has increased. Read more:
