SINGAPORE / LOS ANGELES • A Singaporean woman who was on board a dive ship that caught fire and sank off the coast of California died in the disaster, her sister said yesterday.

Ms Cheerin Tan told The New Paper that DNA samples confirmed that her sister, 26-year-old Ms Tan Wei, was a victim of the massive pre-dawn fire that engulfed the recreational scuba diving vessel on Monday.

Ms Tan Wei, a postgraduate student from the University of California, Berkeley, was among two Singaporeans who were victims of the blaze. The other Singaporean was 46-year-old researcher Sunil Singh Sandhu. Both their names had been listed on the passenger manifest of the boat.

The 23m Conception caught fire at about 3.15am local time on Monday while anchored off Santa Cruz Island.

Thirty-three passengers and a crew member are feared to have died in one of California’s worst maritime disasters. None of the names of the dead, who ranged in age from 17 to 60, has been publicly released by the authorities.

Only five crew members survived the tragedy as they were above deck when the blaze was discovered.

Investigators said on Thursday that the crew members told a harrowing story of their failed attempts to save 34 people trapped below deck in a bunk room already engulfed in flames.

They said fierce flames prevented them from climbing down a narrow ladder into the bunk room or gaining access through a window.

“What is emerging… is a harrowing story of the moments (after) the fire erupted on the vessel,” US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Jennifer Homendy told reporters at what she said would be the board’s final news conference in Santa Barbara, California.

Divers on Thursday were still searching for the remains of the final victim of the tragedy as forensic experts employed a DNA analysis tool typically used in war zones to identify the 33 charred bodies recovered so far.

A member of the crew spoke of hearing a noise from his bunk on the wheelhouse deck of the Conception and seeing flames erupting from the galley, Ms Homendy said, adding that he told investigators he never heard any smoke alarms.

Frantic crew members jumped from the bridge to the main deck, one of them breaking a leg, but could not go any further down, she was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“Due to the heat and flames and smoke, the crew had to jump from the boat,” she said, adding that two of the survivors were able to swim to an inflatable skiff at the back of the vessel and rescue the rest of the surviving crew members.

After reaching a nearby vessel, Ms Homendy said, two crew members returned to the Conception in the skiff to search for survivors, but found none.

Speaking at the same news conference, chief investigator Adam Tucker said that while interviews were not complete, no one had yet spoken of seeing any of the 34 victims above deck.

Divers on Thursday were inspecting the ship’s wreckage, with plans to raise it from the ocean floor, but that process may be complicated by high winds forecast in the coming days.

The NTSB investigators said they expected to be on the scene for another week, and added that they would likely not issue a final report for up to 18 months, although some preliminary findings could be released in 10 days.

Earlier on Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom said a senior environmental scientist and her husband were on the Conception when it caught fire and were presumed dead.

“California is committed to assisting in recovery efforts and the investigation, however possible. Based on the findings of the investigation, the state will take action to prevent horrific boat fires like this in the future,” Mr Newsom said in a written statement.

The boat’s owner, Truth Aquatics, has suspended dive expeditions on two other boats while the incident is being investigated, the NTSB has said.

Source: Read Full Article