Eight bodies have been recovered and 26 are still missing after a fire tore through a boat packed with scuba divers as they slept.
As hope dims by the hour, authorities said they are still continuing to search for possible survivors after a boat anchored off of Santa Cruz, California, went up in flames around 3 a.m. Monday morning.
Rescue teams Monday recovered four bodies in the waters around Santa Cruz and spotted four others at the bottom of the ocean floor near where the 75-foot commercial scuba diving vessel had sunk, according to the Associated Press. Coast Guard Capt. Monica Rochester said the search for survivors would continue but added that the odds off any survivors is low.
“We will search all the way through the night into the morning, but I think we should all be prepared to move into the worst outcome,” Rochester said at a press conference.
The four bodies removed from the waters, two males and two females, all had injuries consistent with drowning. It isn’t known when the bodies discovered beneath the surface will be retrieved or when divers will be able to access the boat’s wreckage, 64 feet beneath the water, to search for the remains of others onboard the ship during the blaze.
“It’s upside down in relatively shallow water with receding tides that are moving it around,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.
#CoastInc: @VCFD responded to boat fire off the north side of Santa Cruz Island at approximately 3:28am. @USCG helping support rescue operations for people aboard a dive boat. #ChannelIslands @USCGLosAngeles @CountyVentura @SBCOUNTYFIRE pic.twitter.com/DwoPGfBjtA
— VCFD PIO (@VCFD_PIO) September 2, 2019
Five crew members of the vessel, known as Conception, were already awake and on the bridge of the boat when the fire began. A frantic mayday call was able to be dispatched before the five jumped into the water to avoid the fire.
“I can’t breathe!” a crew member can be heard relaying to the Coast Guard in a garbled message that ended with silence as the responder asked the crew’s location. The location of the vessel was about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The five were rescued by a 60-foot fishing boat called The Grape Escape that was anchored nearby. The fishing vessel’s owners, Bob and Shirley Hansen, said they heard pounding on the side of their boat around 3:30 a.m.
“When we looked out, the other boat was totally engulfed in flames, from stem to stern,” Bob Hansen said. “I could see the fire coming through holes on the side of the boat. There were these explosions every few beats. You can’t prepare yourself for that. It was horrendous.”
According to authorities the boat was docked in a remote area that was far from firefighting resources. Passengers onboard the ship for the Labor Day trip were bunked in the lowest part of the vessel near the engine, which had only one narrow stairway leading to an exit to the deck of the ship.
“You couldn’t ask for a worse situation,” Brown said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
