Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

[chillyinCanada]

Divers recover body of last missing victim of boat fire - The Washington Post

 

[KevinNM]

Did they have the ability to blend nitrox? That means some K bottles, but I would think if that was the case and they were involved, someone would have made mention of a huge explosion.

Now that I think of it, why aren't there reports of SCUBA tanks blowing up?

They had a membrane system, no O2 bottles other than med gas.

There were reports of tank explosions, the owners of the Grape Escape reported a series of explosions that went on for a while. They were not specific as to what was blowing up, but probably wouldn't be given the way that fire looked. But what would you expect would be exploding that early in the fire?

 

[Stoo]

Please read the summary if you aren’t going to keep up with the thread.

Seems I missed that.

 

[chillyinCanada]

The summary is in the first post and has been reposted regularly within this thread.

 

[tursiops]

The summary is in the first post and has been reposted regularly within this thread.

Most recently post #1673...Fire on dive boat Conception in CA.

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Thanks for pointing that out. It is also posted in the first post of this thread and updated there and throughout as things change.

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[Ravenware]

Did they have the ability to blend nitrox? That means some K bottles, but I would think if that was the case and they were involved, someone would have made mention of a huge explosion.

Now that I think of it, why aren't there reports of SCUBA tanks blowing up?

The tanks were on the back of the boat, and that was the last area to burn, and it did not burn as much. Then the boat sank.

 

[JackD342]

Also, a full cylinder in a fire would likely heat enough to blow the pressure disc before heating enough for the metal vessel to fail.

 

[broncobowsher]

I've had a thought.
There has been some discussion about smoke detectors, possibly not going off. What if it didn't? But it passed testing? The general test for most smoke detectors is to press the "test" button and hope you remember hearing protection while doing so. So the screaming memmie yells good and loud, but did it actually detect any smoke? Electronics in a salt water environment have never been known to be a good mix. Will the detector actually detect smoke? was it the right kind of smoke to trigger the detector? I remember something a long time ago about different detectors and one was tolerant of steam from a shower or a kitchen but the other style would fire off.
It was just a thought. Not like it will be able to be tested now since it burnt up and sat on the bottom of the ocean for a week. Could you fault the crew/USCG as they tested the detector is designed to be tested?

 

[KevinNM]

Also, a full cylinder in a fire would likely heat enough to blow the pressure disc before heating enough for the metal vessel to fail.

The founder of PSI said that they can explode in a fire, as aluminum loses strength very fast, and the metal might reach yield strength before the pressure in the air rises to activate the burst disk. Espacially if the tanks were like half full. Say like after a night dive when the plan was to refill them in the morning...

 

[Bob DBF]

Interesting the CG has issued safety recommendations.

Not really. Bureaucratic organizations need to have a means to address safety issues as soon as possible, especially if the cause is not immediately found, knowing it may take a long time for committees to come to a solution. This is how the USCG does it.

My reading:
These type boats are still operating, something real bad happened, for now these are the things we (USCG) want you to do to avoid a reocourance until the cause is found and we can be more specific.

Since the majority of the bulletin was to emphasize basic seamanship, they don't have any cause yet so the only solution is for crews to be extremely professional and vigilant. This has been answer to disaster at sea since men first set sail.

And a warning not to trust lithium batteries, or daisy chained power strips, and other suspect electrical practices, just in case.



Bob