Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

[roakey]

...you could have had a big hatch that spanned the entire passagway....

And a huge hole in the floor of the salon that people coming up the stairway and heading out the salon exit would fall into...

The floor above any escape hatch must basically be made unusable and out of the flow of traffic. Hence my design, such as it is, above.

Roak

 

[Marie13]

Canadian flagged or US?

Here’s the website: Diving Info - Isle Royale Charters

If it’s going between MN and Isle Royale, wouldn’t it have to be US flagged?

 

[Wookie]

Here’s the website: Diving Info - Isle Royale Charters

If it’s going between MN and Isle Royale, wouldn’t it have to be US flagged?

Where is Isle Royale?

 

[Marie13]

Where is Isle Royale?

Large island in Lake Superior that is a US National Park.

 

[lexvil]

It is a classic engineering conundrum. Increasing the size of a hatch directly impacts construction cost, structural integrity, and reliability -- to say nothing of decreasing the ease and speed of operation. Ask any Navy sailor or Marine what it is like to open one of these:

View attachment 538713​

Granted, there are faster acting clamping mechanisms, but they more failure prone, heavy, and many times more expensive. Egress has been a major concern on combat ships since iron hulls were introduced so it is an excellent place to look for relevant data. The BIG difference here is general boating can't depend on the level of training or physical fitness that the military can.

Please don't take any my comments as "this is the best we can do", because it never will be. I am only trying to point out some of the practical constraints and give people a sense of the great number of person-hours at sea where existing standards have proven satisfactory.

And just look at the size of that “Z” level hatch!

 

[acidrush]

If this is a repeat, I apologize.... I might have missed this type of comment..

Has anyone personally tried to get out of a live aboard boat using the emergency hatch? Has anyone ever been involved in a practice drill, simular to a practice gatherer and doning your life jacket drill? I NEVER HAVE... MAYBE IT'S TIME...

I used to work in the offshore oil and gas industry and every lob I've been on (my experience is limited to asia, mainly Indonesia), I always do the following on the 1st day:
1) Find out where the life jackets are
2) Test the alternate exit or escape hatch
3) Try to remember my exit route (main and alternate)
4) Sleep with a glow stick with me on my bed
5) Find out the location and who is responsible for getting the epirb in an evacuation and remember his/her name and face.

On another note, I sincerely hope i do not offend anyone. This is a boat operating in a first world country is it legal to have an escape hatch where you have to clamber on a bunk to get out and also pack the sleep quarters like sardines? The only dives I've done in america was a cattle boat out of Oahu on a day trip in the 90s so pardon me if anything i wrote is offensive as my knowlege of that part of the world is limited to non existent. 2 Singaporeans died on this boat. My condolences to the families.

 

[Texas Torpedo]

If the fire originated in the bunk area, that could explain people there getting incapacitated at sleep with toxic fumes and unable to evacuate. Could also help to explain why ship was full ablaze before crew on top deck even noticed.
Reporting galley on fire does not exclude it getting on fire from below.
Would nobody even try to exit through galley wrapped with coats/blankets/whatever else was there, had they been conscious?
Just my thoughts so far after reading all the posts so far...

I seriously doubt the fire started in the bunk area. Had a small device flamed, I suspect someone would have noticed it before people were overcome. Actually, I don't think a phone sized lipo would be capable of overcoming everyone down there. Start a fire? Yep.. But, it wouldn't be raging for a while, and I'd like to think a good number would have made it out.

I'm sure a whole lot of you have googled / youtub'd lipos burning, but if not, here's one that is most likely smaller than the batteries in a lot of can lights. (Can't see the specs) Now imagine if you had one many times it size cook off, and set off all the other batteries on that table. Notice how quiet it burns, outside of the guy shooting it with what I assume is a pellet gun. It's no different to what happens when one ruptures from overcharging or shorting. The crew likely wouldn't know it until it was a massive fireball. IF one of the crew was actually woken up by a pop or a snapping sound, it could have been some type of plastic or other battery enclosure breaking at ignition.

I'd really like to know if there were DPV's on this trip. Don't expect to find out any time soon.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I used to work in the offshore oil and gas industry and every lob I've been on (my experience is limited to asia, mainly Indonesia), I always do the following on the 1st day:
1) Find out where the life jackets are
2) Test the alternate exit or escape hatch
3) Try to remember my exit route (main and alternate)
4) Sleep with a glow stick with me on my bed
5) Find out the location and who is responsible for getting the epirb in an evacuation and remember his/her name and face.

Testing the escape hatch/alternate exit is going to be on my list of to-dos as soon as I board a liveaboard now. As for the EPIRB, do yourself and your traveling companions a favor and get a PLB. Don't rely on someone else to grab one if it is that important for you. It's also good to have if you ever get swept from a dive site or are left somewhere, despite your efforts to minimize or eliminate the perceived possibility. You can even use it for land activities, especially if you are going somewhere remote.

 

[lizardqueen]

OK so I guess I didn't do a great job of making my point...I'd like to see review of escape hatch regs, but what Roak said:

IMHO The root-failure fix to this problem will be centered around fire/smoke/CO/noxious fume detectors. The folks below simply needed to be alerted earlier.

34 people below, 5 on the top deck [1 ostensibly awake] and no one heard a fire alarm on such a small boat.

When I lived in NYC I woke my neighbors burning toast, and I was well aware when the lady downstairs was cooking drunk. All we had were crappy little devices mandated by the city.

 

[cerich]

I used to work in the offshore oil and gas industry and every lob I've been on (my experience is limited to asia, mainly Indonesia), I always do the following on the 1st day:
1) Find out where the life jackets are
2) Test the alternate exit or escape hatch
3) Try to remember my exit route (main and alternate)
4) Sleep with a glow stick with me on my bed
5) Find out the location and who is responsible for getting the epirb in an evacuation and remember his/her name and face.

On another note, I sincerely hope i do not offend anyone. This is a boat operating in a first world country is it legal to have an escape hatch where you have to clamber on a bunk to get out and also pack the sleep quarters like sardines? The only dives I've done in america was a cattle boat out of Oahu on a day trip in the 90s so pardon me if anything i wrote is offensive as my knowlege of that part of the world is limited to non existent. 2 Singaporeans died on this boat. My condolences to the families.

good advice and yes it is legal.