(CNN) — The US Coast Guard on Tuesday suspended the search for victims of a deadly Labor Day boat fire off the California coast, officials said.
Of the 39 people aboard the 75-foot dive boat Conception, only five people — all crew members — were found alive, officials said.
Twenty bodies have been recovered. They have been identified as 11 women and nine men, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters. Fourteen people are still missing, he said.
United States Coast Guard Capt. Monica Rochester said the search was suspended because no other people were seen entering the water. An aircraft that flew over the scene on Tuesday didn’t see any additional signs of debris or distress.
“It is never an easy decision to suspend search efforts,” she said. “We know that this is a very difficult time for families and friends of the victims.”
Crews searched a 160-mile area for close to 24 hours, Rochester said.
Divers saw four to six bodies in the wreckage but couldn’t recover them before nightfall because the boat was unstable, Brown said. Crews will try to stabilize the boat so divers can safely enter it to recover the bodies, he said.
Thirty-three people had signed up to spend what promised to be a glorious weekend for scuba divers aboard the boat: unlimited diving among colorful underwater sea life, with gourmet meals served between dives.
But on the last part of the three-day trip, the ship caught fire off Santa Cruz Island.
“This is probably the worst-case scenario you can possibly have,” Brown said. “You have a vessel that’s on the open sea, that is in the middle of the night. I mean, it’s 3:30 in the morning.”
Rapid DNA testing will be used to identify victims, sheriff says
Authorities will use rapid DNA technology to identify those whose bodies were badly burned, Brown said. The technology helped to identify victims of the Camp Fire in Northern California 2018, federal authorities said. The blaze destroyed the town of Paradise and killed more than 80 people.
“There was an extraordinarily hot fire and the bodies do exhibit signs of extreme thermal damage,” Brown said.
The technology, which can simultaneously analyze five DNA samples in 90 minutes, helped to quickly identify victims of the devastating Camp Fire in Northern California 2018, federal authorities said. It can take weeks get results in a traditional forensic lab.
Victims were likely asleep
Questions abound over why the boat caught fire, and whether lives could have been saved.
A mayday call reveals the tension between a Coast Guard dispatcher and the Conception’s captain. But only the dispatcher’s words could be heard.
The captain apparently reports a fire and provides a location. The dispatcher is heard saying, “And there’s 33 people on board the vessel that’s on fire, they can’t get off? … Roger, are they locked inside the boat? … Roger, can you get back on board and unlock the boat, unlock the door so they can get off? … Roger, you don’t have any firefighting gear at all? No fire extinguishers or anything?”
Later in the conversation, the dispatcher asks, “Was that all the crew that jumped off? … Roger, is the vessel fully engulfed right now … Roger, and there’s no escape hatch for any of the people on board?”
At one point, the caller says, “I can’t breathe.”
Ventura County firefighters were able to reach the boat within 15 minutes, the fire department said.
But by then, it was engulfed in flames.
Firefighters struggled to extinguish the fire because each time it was snuffed out, flames flared back up — perhaps because of the fuel on board, the Coast Guard’s Aaron Bemis said.
By 7:20 a.m., the ship began to sink in 64 feet of water. The boat had burned down to the water line, Santa Barbara County fire spokesman Mike Eliason said.
Many of the passengers were below deck, most likely sound asleep when the fire broke out, authorities said.
None of the people who were on board have been identified.
The company that operates the Conception, Truth Aquatics, declined to comment to CNN.
A local captain responds to the mayday call
Capt. Paul Amaral, owner of maritime towing company TowBoatUS Ventura, heard the mayday call from the mainland California city of Ventura. He jumped into his 27-foot boat and started the 30-mile trip to Santa Cruz Island.
“Once I got on scene there was only one fire boat trying to put out the fire,” Amaral said Tuesday.
“I proceeded to do a coastline search for passengers, and once I didn’t find anyone, I offered assistance on fire fighting.”
At one point, the Conception broke free from its anchor and started drifting toward the island — meaning larger firefighting boats couldn’t go any closer.
So Amaral had to step in, “I was in a much smaller 27-foot boat and was able to go in close to the boat, attach a chain and pull it away from the island,” he said.
After the boat sank, Amaral said several bodies surfaced. He said he helped with the recovery efforts.
“I have responded to several boat fires, but to know these people were trapped on that boat, it’s horrific,” he said.
An agonizing wait
James Kohls waited anxiously to learn the fate of his brother, Mike Kohls, the galley cook and a deckhand on the Conception.
“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.”
He said Mike Kohls, a lifelong surfer and father of a daughter, is typically making breakfast for the passengers on the ship around 4 a.m.
Eliason, the fire department spokesman, said it’s still possible some passengers may have survived. But the odds are stacked against them.
“We’re still holding hope that someone may have swum to shore,” Eliason said.
“When they anchor overnight, they’re pretty close to shore. We have to hope, but we plan for worst-case scenario.”
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