Updated: 4 bodies found, 30 missing in California boat fire

The bodies of four persons who died when a raging fire swept through a dive-boat off the Southern California coast were recovered Monday as authorities said more than two dozen others remained missing and feared dead.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Kroll said the four bodies had injuries consistent with drowning, Fox8 Cleveland reports.

Searchers continued to look for more than two dozen other people who were aboard the vessel Conception, which burned while anchored off Santa Cruz Island.

“Right now they’re conducting shoreline searches for any available survivors,” Coast Guard Capt. Monica Rochester told reporters at a brief news conference at Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard.

The Coast Guard said the vessel was believed to have carried 38 people, including five crew members who jumped off soon after the fire ignited before dawn.

“The crew was actually already awake and on the bridge and they jumped off,” Rochester said.

Two suffered minor injuries, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Barney.

Authorities said the crew members were rescued by a good Samaritan vessel called The Grape Escape.

Asked if the crew tried to help others aboard, Rochester said, “I don’t have any additional information.”

A woman who came to the harbour said, “My son was on that boat.” She was led away by a Ventura County firefighter.

Fire crews in helicopters, small boats and a Coast Guard cutter desperately battled the fierce pre-dawn fire on the 75-foot (23-meter) Conception, which had been on a diving excursion around Santa Cruz Island, just west of Santa Barbara.

But the blaze and intense heat prevented them from breaching the vessel’s hull to search for survivors before the craft sank, the Coast Guard said. A dense fog further complicated rescue efforts.

Shirley Hansen, who was on the Grape Escape with her husband Bob, told the Los Angeles Times they were asleep when they heard pounding on the side of their fishing boat.

The crew, some only in underwear and two with leg injuries, had retrieved a dinghy and paddled 200 yards to the Hansens’ boat.

Shirley Hansen said the men were distraught — one had a girlfriend below-deck on the Conception — and two of the men paddled back to look for survivors, but found none.

Rochester of the Coast Guard said all the passengers were believed to have been sleeping at the time. The Conception had a crowded cabin with three-high bunks below decks.

She said 34 people were unaccounted for when the Conception sank 20 yards (meters) off the island’s northern shore, leaving only its bow exposed.

“I’m unaware of any survivors at this time,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Aaron Bemis told CNN earlier, adding that it was too soon to confirm casualties.