Deadly Santa Barbara dive boat fire captured on video by victim. Here’s what it shows

Cell phone video captured by one of the Conception dive boat victims confirms that people below deck were awake and trying to find an escape route from the fire before they died, according to victims’ families.

On Sept. 2, 2019, 33 passengers and one crew member were killed when the Santa Barbara-based dive boat caught fire and sank while anchored offshore of Santa Cruz Island.

Five crew members escaped, but everyone who had been sleeping in the below-deck bunkhouse died of smoke inhalation, according to investigators.

The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that multiple victims’ families have been shown phone video footage by federal investigators that revealed “the increasingly desperate scene as smoke seeped below deck into the dive boat’s bunk room.”

One man whom the Times identified as a victim’s brother said the video shows “smoke coming in from some of the fans and down the stairwell” and people “walking around looking for a way to get out.”

The video recording started at 3:17 a.m., three minutes after the ship’s captain made the mayday call on the ship’s radio, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Captain Jerry Nehl Boylan and four other crew members sleeping above deck jumped overboard to escape the flames shortly after that call.

Boylan faces criminal charges for misconduct or neglect of a ship officer, and the indictment alleges he “acted with a wanton or reckless disregard for human life by engaging in misconduct, gross negligence, and inattention to his duties on such vessel.”

He has pleaded not guilty.

Sheriff: Dive boat fire victims died of smoke inhalation

Emergency responders arrived at the disaster scene and found the boat in flames.

The wreckage later sank to the seafloor, and there was a week-long effort to recover bodies from the vessel and the surrounding waters.

The Santa Barbara County Coroner’s Bureau determined smoke inhalation was the cause of death for all the victims.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff-Coroner Bill Brown said at the time that full autopsies were not conducted because initial examinations seemed to confirm smoke inhalation as the cause of death.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded the disaster was preventable.

The probable cause of the fire and boat sinking was the operator’s failure to provide effective oversight of the vessel and crew, including the failure to provide a roving patrol, the NTSB found.

Investigators found that all crew members were asleep when the fire started, and the failure to have a roving patrol allowed the fire to grow undetected on the main deck of the vessel, the NTSB said.

One of the crew members asleep in the bunks behind the wheelhouse woke up to a noise, and saw a fire in the salon/galley compartment.

Boylan made the mayday call and the above-deck crew members all jumped overboard to escape the blaze. They were rescued by another boat anchored nearby.

Investigators said the Coroner’s Bureau reports say some of the passengers were wearing shoes, suggesting they were awake and trying to escape.

“Staff believe most of the victims were awake but could not flee the bunk room before all were overcome by smoke inhalation,” Noozhawk reported in October 2020.

Changes to safety rules, lawsuits filed following disaster

Conception disaster investigators recommended changes to small passenger vessel safety regulations and some of those are being implemented through federal legislation.

The NTSB report said the Conception had smoke detectors in the below-deck bunk area, but they were not connected to each other or the wheelhouse, and no smoke detectors were in the salon, the common area above the sleeping quarters where the fire started.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the U.S. Coast Guard enacted interim rules that would require small passenger vessels with overnight accommodation to have a secondary means of escape into a different area than the primary exit, so a single fire could not impact both escape routes.

That’s what happened on the Conception: the below-deck bunkroom’s ladder and emergency escape hatch both lead to the salon/galley compartment, and both exits were blocked by fire.

Family members of the victims have filed wrongful death lawsuits in federal court and a civil case against the U.S. Coast Guard, alleging the agency repeatedly certified “a ‘fire trap’ small passenger vessel that was riddled with blatant life-safety violations.”

They have also filed suit against the Conception’s operator, Truth Aquatics of Santa Barbara.

The company stopped operating the fleet’s sister vessels after the Conception disaster, and later sold the Truth and Vision to another company, Channel Islands Expeditions.

That company made safety modifications to the vessels and offers dive trips out of Sea Landing in the Santa Barbara Harbor.

The city of Santa Barbara dedicated a plaque to the Conception dive boat victims on the first anniversary of the disaster. The memorial is on the Santa Barbara Harbor breakwater and is often adorned with flowers and photos.