Conception Captain Found Guilty of Manslaughter

[Wookie]

The diagrams show 3 emergency exits on the Vision, 2 to the outside, and 1 emergency exit on the Truth, to the outside. They also state that centralized fire detection and alarm systems are on all levels.

I would love to see those "escape hatches" in the front of the salon. Again, IIRC, they are windows that open to crawl out of.

Maybe they put in a door.

 

[KevinNM]

I would love to see those "escape hatches" in the front of the salon. Again, IIRC, they are windows that open to crawl out of.

Maybe they put in a door.

Those look like the deck hatches with ladders under them that got the boat sent to Marine Safety by the Coast Guard. But not sure.

 

[Kendall Raine]

Those look like the deck hatches with ladders under them that got the boat sent to Marine Safety by the Coast Guard. But not sure.

They are water proof marine hatches from the berthing area direct to the deck on port and starboard.

 

[scubadada]

There are no photos of the emergency exits on the website but there is a photo of a fire control panel and a photo of the berthing area showing a wall fire alarm, a ceiling detector, and emergency exit signage.

 

[rjack321]

If you think the grandfathered safety date is a huge and potentially dangerous loophole, then you are correct. If you are surprised by this, then you haven't seen the power lobbyists have at every step in the creation of laws and the regulations that implement them.

This permeates every aspect of life. When a building code is changed do you lose your certificate of occupancy and have to go remodel the electrical or plumbing or make changes to the structure to bring it up to current safety and code standards for fires, floods, earthquakes etc? No we don't do that. If you make major renovations then you need permits and need to bring the building up to current code. None of this has stopped the construction of new buildings which meet those new standards out of the gate.

Despite the Jones Act, new boats are being built, just not dive boats.

 

[iointerrupt]

This post: Truth Aquatics back in business?

Has pictures of an escape hatch on Vision. At least, that's what the thread says.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

AFAIF even in a building, the emergency exit needs to be a door that goes to the outside.

I think it depends. There are often interior emergency exits in buildings that aren't marked with bright green "Exit" signs but do serve that purpose.

The labs in my building have at least one exit/entrance door to the hallway. If they don't have a second door to the hallway, there is a door between the lab and the adjoining lab. Students and faculty can use either to exit a room that's on fire, but neither takes you directly outdoors.

On the other hand, the building's grand staircase doesn't count as an exit route, because it's not enclosed and because the bottom of the stairs is perhaps 30' from the exit doors. So we have two staircases in opposite corners of the building that are walled off and have doors on the first floor exiting directly to fresh air and immediately adjacent to the landing.

We brief students on the exit routes if they aren't immediately obvious.

 

[lowwall]

This permeates every aspect of life. When a building code is changed do you lose your certificate of occupancy and have to go remodel the electrical or plumbing or make changes to the structure to bring it up to current safety and code standards for fires, floods, earthquakes etc? No we don't do that. If you make major renovations then you need permits and need to bring the building up to current code. None of this has stopped the construction of new buildings which meet those new standards out of the gate.

Absolutely true. And generally reasonable for private dwellings and vehicles. But as you move into buildings and vessels where the public/customer does not have control over their safety, this does not always make sense. Nor is it universal. There was a fire in an older office building in Chicago in 2003 that resulted in 6 deaths that could have been prevented by a sprinkler system. The city council then passed a law requiring older buildings to update their fire systems. The older office building I'm sitting in right now added a sprinkler system. My 54 story condo building avoided the huge cost of retrofitting a full sprinkler system because we have 3 separate fire hardened internal staircases, but we did have to add sprinklers to the garage and a fire detection and announcement system to each floor to comply with the new law.

As to vessels... The FAA normally does requires older airliners to comply with new safety regulations. The only flexibility is about the timeframe to make the upgrade.

 

[SlugLife]

The only way out of the bunk room for the passengers was through the fire. The supposed second emergency exit was really nonfunctional and led to the same room as the primary exit.

As I said dozens of times in the other thread, the owner of the boat should be on trial. The owner is the reason everyone died, from the lack of exits, fire-alert-systems, and fire-fighting equipment.

I was about 50/50 about whether the captain should be convicted, and would need to have probably watched the trial (and not just read articles) to be sure of what his contribution was to the tragedy.

 

[rjack321]

Absolutely true. And generally reasonable for private dwellings and vehicles. But as you move into buildings and vessels where the public/customer does not have control over their safety, this does not always make sense. Nor is it universal. There was a fire in an older office building in Chicago in 2003 that resulted in 6 deaths that could have been prevented by a sprinkler system. The city council then passed a law requiring older buildings to update their fire systems. The older office building I'm sitting in right now added a sprinkler system. My 54 story condo building avoided the huge cost of retrofitting a full sprinkler system because we have 3 separate fire hardened internal staircases, but we did have to add sprinklers to the garage and a fire detection and announcement system to each floor to comply with the new law.

As to vessels... The FAA normally does requires older airliners to comply with new safety regulations. The only flexibility is about the timeframe to make the upgrade.

True but if we rewind the clock to before the fire. If the USCG had demanded structural egress and firefighting changes to the Conception (and somehow resisted lobbying to the contary)...

I suspect the owners would have pulled the Conception from service rather than make those kinds of changes to a 50yo hull given the high likelihood that they'd never recoup that investment. At least locally, we have almost no dive charters at all anymore even without those kinds of rebuild costs. Fuel, moorage, insurance, and staffing expenses are not covered by what Puget Sound divers are willing to pay even without modernization expenses (we've never had a liveaboard fleet). That's in part because scooters have made so many former boat sites accessible.