Smoke inhalation likely killed boat fire victims
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (FOX 11) - Authorities say medical examiners believe dozens of people trapped when a California scuba diving boat caught fire died of smoke inhalation, not burns.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters Friday that all the victims sleeping in tight quarters below deck had signs of smoke inhalation and a preliminary examination shows they died before being burned.
The fire killed 34 people, and all but one body has been recovered. Five crew members who were above deck survived Monday’s fire by jumping overboard and say they tried to save the victims.
Related: Remains of those killed in Conception boat fire identified
Brown says there are no plans to conduct traditional autopsies, with a pathologist convinced smoke inhalation is the primary cause of death, but examiners will make a final determination.
The sheriff says there are multiple investigations into different aspects of a fire but that it hasn’t become a criminal probe.
Officials have identified the remains of 18 people.
During a press conference Friday, Brown told reporters that the families of all 34 victims have been contacted to collect DNA samples. He says that identifications require DNA analysis because of the fire’s intensity early Monday aboard the vessel Conception.
The sheriff said the FBI helped with that effort across the U.S. and internationally. Brown says one relative was a mother in Japan, another was in Singapore and another flew in from India.
Authorities are searching the ocean for the remaining missing victim. They also are trying to recover the sunken vessel.