LOS ANGELES — Thirty-four passengers are missing from a 75-foot commercial diving boat that caught fire early Monday off the coast of Santa Cruz Island in Southern California, officials said.
Though Ventura County spokesman Bill Nash confirmed there were multiple fatalities aboard the boat, dubbed the “Conception,” he said he did not have the exact number of casualties.
Rescuers were able to save the five crew members, who were awake in the main cabin and jumped off of the boat, Coast Guard Capt. Monica Rochester said. The passengers were below deck in the berthing area that’s primarily used for sleeping, the Coast Guard’s Aaron Bemis told CNN.
“The report that we got is that they were trapped by the fire,” Bemis said. “The fire was so intense that even after it was put out, we’re not able to actually embark the vessel and look for survivors at this point. It’s still ongoing.”
Bemis could not confirm any fatalities, he said.
Good Samaritans rescued the crew members and took them aboard, the Coast Guard said. One suffered minor injuries. Four of them are being taken ashore, while the Conception’s captain has opted to remain on the scene, Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Josue Mendez said.
James Kohls was in Oxnard waiting to learn the fate of his brother, Mike Kohls, the gallery cook and a deckhand on the Conception. At 4 a.m., his brother, a lifelong surfer and father of one daughter, is typically making breakfast for the passengers, James Kohls said.
“It’s very surreal at the moment,” he told reporters. “They were going to let me know whether he was one of the survivors that got off.”
Firefighters had difficulties snuffing out the fire, Bemis said, because each time it was extinguished, it flared back up — perhaps because of the fuel on board.
“The Conception burned down to the water line,” said Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason.
Foggy conditions also complicated the rescue operation, he said.
“We’re still holding hope that someone may have swum to shore,” Eliason told CNN. “When they anchor overnight, they’re pretty close to shore. We have to hope, but we plan for worst-case scenario.”
The boat is about 20 miles off the mainland coast, near Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands National Park. Authorities are searching the islands’ shorelines for survivors, the Coast Guard said.
As firefighters worked to put out the blaze, the boat sank in 64 feet of water, Rochester said. A portion of the bow is protruding from the water, she said.
The fire began about 3:14 a.m. (6:14 a.m. ET), Bemis said, and the Ventura County Fire Department said it was on the scene within 15 minutes.
The cause of the blaze is not clear.
Conception is based out of Santa Barbara Harbor, according to harbor patrol officer Nathan Alldredge.
Authorities responded to a call for fire and rescue support in the Platts Harbor area of Santa Cruz Island before 4 a.m., he said. When they arrived, they found “at least 30 passengers on board and (the boat was) fully involved in flames,” Alldredge said.
According to Truth Aquatics website, which conducts boat charters, Conception left Saturday on a three-day cruise and was scheduled to return Monday afternoon.
