Five years after California's worst modern maritime disaster, relatives of victims of the Conception ship fire are angry at what they call the slow pace of accountability, while a top U.S. law enforcement official says the Coast Guard remains stuck on reforms.
Thirty-four people died aboard the Conception on Labor Day 2019, when a fire broke out on the main deck while dozens of divers slept in a windowless bunk room below. Amid the smoke and chaos, they desperately tried to find a route to safety on the 75-foot dive boat but were unable to escape.
Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, criticized the Coast Guard at a news conference Monday for failing to require safety management systems for small boats.
“How many deaths have to occur? How many injuries have to occur? How many families have to be here at a press conference crying for their loved ones before action is taken?” Homendy said as he stood near a plaque at the Santa Barbara Harbor commemorating the victims of Conception. “And how many times has Congress, which did it again in 2021, [have to] “Tell the Coast Guard to take action?”
Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, speaks Monday at the Port of Santa Barbara among family members of those who died on the diving boat Conception five years ago.
(Richard Winton/Los Angeles Times)
Homendy, joined by victims' families, said her agency has made recommendations dating back more than two decades for safety management systems, most recently after the Conception fire.
He sent a letter to the secretary of Homeland Security and the head of the Coast Guard on Monday asking them to implement the change “with all possible haste.”
In a July letter to the NTSB, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Gautier wrote that the NTSB had been “working diligently” on a notice of proposed rulemaking with “due haste” on safety management systems. But Homendy said that explanation is unacceptable “given the prolonged inaction.”
Homendy said a safety management system establishes common-sense rules and procedures about what training should be conducted, what emergency drills should be conducted and how roving watches should be set up to spot fires. These were all massive failures five years ago, he said, when five crew members sleeping in the upper deck wheelhouse were startled awake by shouts of “Fire! Fire!” shortly after 3 a.m.
“We’re going to die,” one passenger was heard saying during a disturbing 24-second video recorded by passenger Patricia Ann Beitzinger, according to evidence presented in the 2023 federal criminal trial of Conception Capt. Jerry Boylan.
The video shows the dark silhouettes of people trapped in the bunk room as the fire approaches. Voices are muffled and difficult to hear, but prosecutors provided a transcript to jurors during Boylan’s trial: “There has to be a way out.” “There must be more fire extinguishers.”
All 33 passengers and one crew member would die from smoke inhalation.
Inside the bunk room, victims were found wearing mismatched shoes, one clutching a phone and another a flashlight. Two were so entwined that they had to be separated. As passengers tried unsuccessfully to escape, Boylan and four crew members jumped from the upper deck into the waters off Platts Harbor on Santa Cruz Island. Boylan, who had not ordered a roving night watch while people slept, was convicted in 2023 of involuntary manslaughter of a seaman and sentenced in May to four years in federal prison.
The Conception as it looked at dawn on Labor Day 2019, after the fire that left 34 people on board dead.
(National Transportation Safety Board)
Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined the fire started in a plastic trash can on the main deck on what was to be the final day of a three-day diving trip.
At the time, such containers were banned from sleeping areas on all ships and from all compartments on newer vessels, but were allowed on older ones like the Conception, records show.
But Homendy said Monday that while the fire may have been caused by cigarettes thrown into a trash can, it was “most likely” caused by lithium-ion batteries from phones and photographs being charged.
Families have complained for years about what they call a slow pace on the part of authorities. They have also expressed anger that Boylan remains free while he appeals his conviction. “We have no rights, we are not being considered,” said Kathleen McIlvain, whose son Charlie McIlvain was among those killed at Conception.
“It wasn't an accident, it was a disaster waiting to happen,” said Vicki Moore, whose husband, Raymond “Scott” Chan, 59, and daughter Kendra Chan, 26, died. In a speech at the port on Monday, she said that although reforms have been made, without the implementation of safety management systems, the tragedy will happen again.
Meanwhile, lawsuits against Conception's owners, Truth Aquatics, and its boss, Glen Fritzler, remain unresolved.
NTSB recommendations following the Conception tragedy regarding fire detection systems, adequate dual escape routes, emergency escape drills, and night watch controls have been implemented. Congress imposed those provisions in December 2020 as part of the Elijah E. Cummings Coast Guard Authorization Act.
But Homendy said security gaps persist even with those reforms, and the Coast Guard has yet to demonstrate how it is monitoring those changes.
Jerry Boylan, right, captain of the Conception, arrives at federal court during his 2023 trial.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
The Coast Guard rear admiral told a congressional hearing in 2021 that when evaluating new rules, the economic costs and benefits of implementing them need to be considered.
Homendy said he continues to hear about the cost, but, addressing grieving families, he added: “This is the cost.”
“I urge the Coast Guard to take action,” he said. “If companies don’t do it, who is there to protect safety?”
A photo from a previous Conception voyage showing the location of the bathrooms and the staircase to the upper deck, as well as a polyethylene trash can below the stairs. To the right, an image is from a 2019 video of the staircase, with shelving installed and a trash can below.
(National Transportation Safety Board)
An NTSB investigation determined that the Conception did not have a mobile watch, allowing the fire on the middle deck to go unnoticed for half an hour. It did not determine the cause but blamed Truth Aquatics and Fritzler for a lax safety culture.
Prosecutors accused Boylan of taking a lax approach to training, leaving everyone on board responsible for their own safety. Boylan's lawyer said the lack of a roving watch and focus on safety training had been part of the “Fritzler way” for decades, referring to the ship's owner.
