Roaring flames blocked escape routes and trapped sleeping scuba divers, official says. Dozens are feared dead

The 34 people feared dead in a California dive boat fire likely got trapped when the roaring blaze blocked their escape routes and confined them to the lower sleeping deck, authorities said.

The Coast Guard on Tuesday suspended the search for victims of the deadly Labor Day boat fire that happened off the Southern California coast. Of the 39 people aboard the 75-foot dive boat Conception, only four crew members and a captain were found alive.

Passengers were not locked in the sleeping deck, but they were unable to flee the burning boat, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.

“There was a stairwell to get down the main entryway, up and down, and there was an escape hatch. And it would appear as though both of those were blocked by fire,” he added.

The boat was about 20 miles off the mainland coast, near Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands National Park.

Twenty bodies recovered

Thirty-three people had signed up to spend the Labor day weekend scuba diving and exploring colorful underwater sea life. Now their families are facing a long, agonizing wait for answers after the ship caught fire off Santa Cruz Island on the last part of the three-day trip.

The bodies of 11 women and nine men have been recovered, Brown said.

Divers have seen several bodies in the wreckage but couldn’t recover them because the boat was unstable, he added. Crews will try to stabilize the boat so divers can safely enter it to get the remaining bodies.

Coast Guard Capt. Monica Rochester said the search and rescue operation is now a recovery mission.

“It is never an easy decision to suspend search efforts,” Rochester said. “We know that this is a very difficult time for families and friends of the victims.”

James Kohls is hoping that his brother made it out alive. Mike Kohls was the galley cook and a deckhand on the Conception.

“It’s very surreal at the moment,” he said “They were going to let me know whether he was one of the survivors that got off.”

The lifelong surfer and father would typically be making breakfast for the passengers on the ship around the time the fire broke out.

While it’s still possible some passengers may have survived, the odds are stacked against them, Santa Barbara County fire spokesman Mike Eliason said.

“We’re still holding hope that someone may have swum to shore,” he said. “When they anchor overnight, they’re pretty close to shore. We have to hope, but we plan for worst-case scenario.”

Rapid DNA technology to be used to ID victims

Authorities will use rapid DNA technology to identify those whose bodies were burned beyond recognition, Brown said. DNA samples are being collected from family members.

The technology can simultaneously analyze five DNA samples in 90 minutes, and was used to quickly identify victims of the devastating Camp Fire in Northern California last year, federal authorities said. It can take weeks to get results in a traditional forensic lab.

The blaze swallowed most of the boat within minutes. Ventura County firefighters reached the boat within 15 minutes, but by then, it was engulfed in flames.

Firefighters struggled to extinguish the fire because the flames flared back up likely because of the fuel on board, the Coast Guard said.