LOS ANGELES _ A deadly fire engulfed the Conception dive boat off the Channel Islands last year because its owner, Truth Aquatics, failed to have effective oversight of the vessel and did not operate a required roving watch that likely would have detected the fire sooner and could have saved lives, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.
In announcing the findings of its investigation into the fire that killed 34 people sleeping below deck, the agency recommended sweeping changes to small vessel oversight by the U.S. Coast Guard, including better smoke detection systems and emergency exits that lead to different areas of the boat.
Although the NTSB determined the fire began in the back of a middle deck salon where lithium-ion batteries were being charged, the agency could not say whether it was the batteries, the ship's electrical system or an unattended fire source that ignited the blaze.
But NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said regardless of the source of the fire, the 33 passengers and one crew member below deck probably could have escaped if there had been early detection of the blaze. The agency found that the fire was burning for at least 30 minutes before a crew member sleeping in the wheelhouse atop the three-deck boat was awakened by a pop, crackle and the glow of the flames from the middle deck.
The NTSB cited the failure by the boat's captain, Jerry Boylan, and Conception's owner, Truth Aquatics, to comply with a Coast Guard requirement that it operate a roving watch whenever passengers were below deck. Sumwalt said the NTSB interviewed captains and crew members from other Truth Aquatics vessels, and all stated that the practices on their vessels were the same as those on the Conception.
That failure was identified in a Times investigation last year, the NTSB board noted Tuesday. No roving watches were set while in port or at anchor in direct violation of Coast Guard requirements for the Conception, according to NTSB investigators.
"It is a grim picture, a picture of a charter boat company that repeatedly disregarded its procedures. The most critical of those deviations, in my opinion, was the failure to require a roving patrol that in my opinion contributed to the high loss of life," Sumwalt said. "It is also a picture of a calm Pacific Ocean on Labor Day morning in the pre-dawn hours when the ocean is illuminated by the bright glow of the fire aboard the Conception that unfortunately claimed 34 lives."
The Coast Guard, the NTSB board members noted, did not require logs of roving watches, so no vessel operated since the 1990s has been cited for failing to have a roving watch.
Board member Jennifer Homendy, who led the NTSB investigation on the ground, said, "at the end of the day there was one person in charge of safety: Truth Aquatics."
"This is the greatest loss of life in many decades," Homendy said. "We never want that to happen again."
The NTSB also found that the Conception did not have smoke detectors installed in the area of the boat where the fire started. And while placing much of the blame on Truth Aquatics, the agency did not spare the government regulators, finding that "contributing to the undetected growth of the fire was the lack of United States Coast Guard regulatory requirements for smoke detectors."
Glen Fritzler, the owner of Truth Aquatics, has denied wrongdoing and insisted that a crew member was awake when the fire was detected. His attorney has said that a crew member was in the salon area less than half an hour before the fire was discovered.
The panel determined that most of the 33 passengers and one crew member below deck were awake _ some with their shoes on _ as the fire engulfed the vessel about 3 a.m., but could not escape the bunk room and died of smoke inhalation. Santa Barbara officials have long said that the 34 who perished likely never knew of the fire.
After adopting its findings and the probable cause of the blaze, the NTSB board adopted a slate of recommendations, including requiring smoke detectors for new and older small passenger vessels that provide overnight accommodations; requiring smoke detectors on vessels to be interconnected, so that if one goes off, they all go off; the development of an inspection process for roving patrols on small passenger vessels; and revising regulations to require newly constructed and older small passenger vessels that provide overnight accommodations to have a secondary means of escape into a different space than the primary exit to avoid a single fire preventing escape.
The board also reiterated its long-standing recommendation to the Coast Guard to implement safety management systems for all U.S. passenger vessels.
The NTSB is the first agency to reveal its findings on the tragedy. The Coast Guard criminal division and the FBI, under the direction of the U.S. attorney, have a criminal investigation for potential seaman's manslaughter charges. There is also an inquiry by the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.
