Jose A. Del Real, Mike Baker and Tim Arango

But that apparently was not enough to stop the brutal fire that overtook the Conception in the early morning hours of Labor Day, leaving 34 people dead and prompting increased scrutiny about whether regulations in place to prevent such tragedies go far enough.

Though the cause of the fire is unknown, the scope of Monday’s devastation has left industry experts and officials baffled at how a respected boat operator lost an entire excursion of people inside the hull of a ship outfitted with safety systems intended to protect any such vessel.

The deadly fire near the Channel Islands, a national park on the California coast, was the state’s worst maritime disaster in recent memory, and officials Tuesday said they had called off a search for survivors.

Sheriff Bill Brown of Santa Barbara County said at a news conference Tuesday morning that 20 bodies had been recovered and that 14 people remained unaccounted for. He added that divers had seen between four and six additional bodies in the wreckage but were not yet able to recover them.

Five crew members were able to escape, including the captain, and were the only ones to survive. The boat, a 75-foot scuba vessel, had 39 people on board — six crew members and 33 passengers.

“Sadly, no additional survivors have been found,” Brown said.

There are 19 commercial diving boats like the Conception operating off the Southern California coast from San Diego to Santa Barbara, according to the Coast Guard.

Federal regulations for small passenger vessels require spaces for overnight accommodations to have a smoke detection and alarm unit. Accommodation spaces must also have at least one portable fire extinguisher, clearly visible and readily available, for every 2,500 square feet, according to regulations. Engine areas must have a fixed fire-suppression system, with controls located away from that area. Passenger areas must have at least two routes of escape, separated from each other, with regulations detailing extensive rules around visibility, accessibility and usability. The Conception appeared to be in compliance.

Fires on the open water can quickly turn deadly. That the fire on the Conception broke out overnight, while passengers were asleep, appears to have severely inhibited the crew’s ability to respond.

“You couldn’t have asked for a worse situation,” Brown said during a news conference. “You have a vessel in the open sea that is in the middle of the night.”

On Tuesday, family members, some from outside of the region, gathered at a local fairground on the coast to await news about their loved ones. A makeshift memorial to the victims, with flowers, candles and notes, was erected at the harbor in Santa Barbara.

The Conception is owned by Truth Aquatics and has been in operation since 1981. The boat was configured to accommodate up to 46 people in the sleeping quarters, according to specifications offered by the company. Diagrams of the boat available online show a single exit up to its galley.

The Conception’s most recent inspection, in February, did not note any problems.

Aboard the Conception, the company reported, were life rafts and life jackets for 110 passengers. The boat’s engine room was equipped with a fixed CO2 fire-suppression system so that a fire there could be knocked down without using hand-held extinguishers.

Capt. Sean Tortora, who runs a consulting business, Long Island Maritime, and wrote a book titled “Study Guide for Marine Fire Prevention, Firefighting, and Fire Safety,” said the combination of the engine-room system and extinguishers sounded appropriate for the vessel. He said that while the berthing area seemed quite large for the size of the ship, he did not immediately see signs that would run counter to industry regulations.

But Tortora said that the scope of the devastation was surprising. Besides the cause of the fire, he said he had questions about whether the fire-detection systems functioned properly, whether the boat’s fuel systems contributed to the fire and whether something prevented the passengers from exiting through the normal routes.

“It went up fast, very fast, so fast that no one could get out,” Tortora said. “Why couldn’t they get out the main entrance?”

He said he expected the tragedy to trigger an industry discussion about whether new regulations are needed.

Coast Guard inspectors have at times noted minor issues inside the Conception. In 2014, they mandated that the company replace a fire hose. In 2016, the company was asked to prove that its fire-detection systems functioned properly. In 2017, they required the company to replace a fire extinguisher, according to Coast Guard records.

Truth Aquatics, which has been operating since 1974, is deeply respected among diving enthusiasts in Southern California. It caters to diving activities that carry built-in risks and has had several accidents and deaths, but nothing on the scale of what happened this week on the Conception.

In 2016, a diver from the Conception was found unresponsive after surfacing from a dive on the north side of Santa Cruz Island, according to records. The crew performed CPR for about 30 minutes before a Coast Guard worker pronounced the man dead. Records indicate that the coroner determined the cause of death was drowning, possibly connected to preexisting medical conditions, such as heart disease.

In 1995, a 35-year-old certified diver drowned while scuba diving in the Channel Islands, according to a report by The Los Angeles Times; he had become separated from his diving partner. In 1998, a 32-year-old man died during a diving trip, according to The Times.

In a separate 1998 episode, the Coast Guard responded to a distress call made by the Truth, another Truth Aquatics boat. According to The Times, the boat briefly took on water but was fixed by the time the Coast Guard arrived. It was inspected for safety and returned to service.

Fire risk, while inherent to boating, is far less common. When fires do occur, however, they can quickly spread on diving boats, fishing boats and other open-sea vessels.

Anna MacKinnon, who lives in San Jose, took a trip on the Conception several years ago and said she recalled how densely packed the bunk beds were. “I thought, ‘If something goes wrong, oh, we’re done for,’ ” said MacKinnon, 55, who said she has been diving since she was in college.

Irene Miranda, a retired dive instructor with a doctorate in marine conservation, said tight sleeping quarters were common on diving boats. Many of her estimated 2,000 dives have been on multiday trips to the Channel Islands, including several on the Conception.

“Fire is especially threatening on any boat,” she said. “Boating and diving have inherent risks. A seasoned crew helps minimize those risks, but boating and diving activities are unforgiving. A small mistake or unlucky circumstance can be catastrophic.”

“The accident was a perfect storm of terrible circumstances that our entire community of divers mourn,” she added.

Miranda said the dive community in California was “pretty tight-knit because we truly have to guard each other’s lives in these situations.” She said that diving was an especially difficult activity with no room for carelessness and that fire was one of the worst things that can happen on a boat. “Your boat goes down, and you could be in the middle of the ocean alone,” she said.

But she also stressed that Truth Aquatics was very respected in the region among expert divers and enthusiasts.

Asked if the crew should have stayed on the boat longer, she said that, based on initial accounts, the crew appeared to have done everything it could have. She stressed how disorienting being out on the water at night can be, in any circumstances.

“It sounds like they did everything right,” she said. “The captain risked his life to make that mayday call, and they just needed help; they needed more people.”

This article originally appeared in

Deadly California Boat Fire Prompts Scrutiny of Regulations

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The boat had long operated with a modern fire-suppression system in its engine room and was deemed safe to sail, having passed a Coast Guard inspection as recently as February that required smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.

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Jose A. Del Real, Mike Baker and Tim Arango

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Deadly California Boat Fire Prompts Scrutiny of Regulations