Dozens of passengers are missing after a 75-foot SCUBA dive boat caught fire early Monday morning off the coast of Southern California.
The Santa Barbara County Fire Department said thirty-four people have been confirmed missing after the fire broke out in the early morning hours on the vessel, named "Conception." The boat set out for Santa Barbara on Saturday for a three-day diving excursion with 34 passengers and five crew members on board and was due back to shore at 5 p.m. Monday.
The boat burned "completely down to the waterline," authorities said.
The scuba dive boat was anchored off the north side of Santa Cruz Island, when the fire department responded to the vessel in distress around 3:30 a.m. Five crew members managed to get off the boat in time because they were in the main cabin of the vessel and awake at the time the fire started, Capt. Monica Rochester said.
"The Coast Guard has launched multiple rescue assets along with assets from local agencies to assist more than 30 people in distress,'' the agency said in a Tweet. "The vessel was reported as being on fire. A group of crew members has been rescued and efforts continue to evacuate the remaining passengers.''
"We're still holding hope that someone may have swam to shore. When they anchor overnight they're pretty close to shore. We have to hope, but we plan for worst case scenario," Santa Barbara County Fire Department PIO Mike Eliason said.
Photo: Ventura County Fire Department