Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article U.S. District Court Judge George H. Wu on Thursday delayed ruling on restitution owed by Capt. Jerry Boylan to the families of those killed over the 2019 Labor Day holiday off Santa Cruz Island. Instead, Wu said, he would make a final decision by July 29, when he also will decide whether the 70-year-old Boylan should remain free pending appeal of his conviction. Wu gave both parties until July 18 to file a list of non-disputed restitution amounts as well as disputed sums. California ATF investigators conducted a series of burn tests on a full-scale mock-up of the middle deck of the dive boat and concluded the deadly blaze began in a Rubbermaid garbage bin beneath the stairs of the main deck Boylan’s attorneys have asked that he remain free on bond pending appeal of his conviction of gross negligence in the disaster. They argue that Boylan has shown he is not a flight risk and and there are substantial questions whether he actually caused the 34 deaths Prosecutors have demanded he be imprisoned noting that the case has been delayed “time and time again” and that he was previously ordered to surrender on Aug They argue there is no “legitimate grounds for further delay.” Boylan’s conviction last year stemmed from a steamship-era law known as “seaman’s manslaughter.” As the flames spread, blocking the exits for those crowded in the bunk room below, a member of Boylan’s crew twice ran right by a 50-foot fire hose overhead. Boylan called in a mayday at 3:14 a.m. before jumping overboard, which prosecutors described as abandoning ship. During Boylan’s sentencing in May, Wu rejected that claim. The National Transportation Safety Board announced it will hold a hearing in October to reveal the results of its investigation into the Conception dive boat fire that killed 34 people off Santa Cruz Island and what needs to change to small boats to avoid a repeat The 33 passengers and one crew member who died below deck — some as they tried to escape — included an environmental scientist who did research in Antarctica; a globe-trotting husband and wife; a Singaporean data scientist; and a family of three sisters The family of the boat fire’s victims have sued Truth Aquatics and the U.S Wu said that he found the captain “incredibly remorseful” and that he had not “intended to do something bad.” He also took Boylan’s age and health into account as well as the unlikelihood that he would reoffend Boylan’s attorneys argued that the person responsible for the deaths was Glen Fritzler which operated the Conception and two other dive boats They argued that Boylan’s failure to use an overnight watch was merely following the custom of Truth Aquatics and that he didn’t know he was imperiling passengers Prosecutors called it the “blaming your boss” defense After investigations by The Times and the National Transportation Safety Board, the Coast Guard adopted several safety reforms. Richard Winton is an investigative crime writer for the Los Angeles Times and part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2011. Known as @lacrimes on Twitter, during almost 30 years at The Times he also has been part of the breaking news staff that won Pulitzers in 1998, 2004 and 2016. Hollywood Inc. Entertainment & Arts Sports Television Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map Passeport rouge biométrique apatride sur fond carte du monde pour la conception Kuwaiti authorities must end the relentless wave of citizenship stripping and review their Nationality Law to ensure compliance with international human rights standards By January 2025 alone, reports indicated that Kuwait’s Supreme Committee to Investigate Kuwaiti Citizenship, a governmental body chaired by Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Saud al-Sabah, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Minister of Interior, stripped over 10 000 people of their citizenship The Committee’s decisions are not subject to judicial oversight or appeal and are merely brought for approval before the Cabinet with many more expecting to face difficulties obtaining civil documents or having access to education and healthcare and started to be enforced and applied retroactively in violation of article 32 of the Constitution new article 8 stipulates that a foreign woman who marries a Kuwaiti can no longer acquire citizenship.  Modified article 13 also adds conditions for administrative [ie not a legal process with right of contestation] citizenship revocation and notably stipulates that Kuwaiti nationality may be revoked by decree for “individuals convicted for crimes of honour or offenses against religious sanctities or the Amir” a provision was included to strip individuals and their relatives of their citizenship “in case authorities see an infringement on the state higher interest or external security”.  a dissolution which could last up to four years as well as the suspension of certain constitutional provisions the undersigned urge the Kuwaiti government to immediately suspend the revocation of citizenship until the Nationality Law is fully amended and aligned with international human rights standards and international best practice Authorities should also reinstate the nationality of all those who lost it without due process and the possibility to challenge the withdrawal before a court We also urge parties to the Global Alliance to End Statelessness succeeding to the UNHCR-led #IBelong campaign (2014-2024) to call on Kuwait to conduct its affairs in line with the spirit and letter of international standards and best practice HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement © 2024 Copyright menarights.org Thanks for visiting ! The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy. We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here. Print Five years after California’s worst modern maritime disaster relatives of the Conception boat fire victims are angry about what they call the slow pace of accountability safety official says the Coast Guard continues to stall on reforms Thirty-four people died aboard the Conception on Labor Day in 2019 when a fire erupted on the main deck while dozens of divers slept in a windowless bunk room below they desperately tried to find a route to safety on the 75-foot dive boat but could not escape chair of the National Transportation Safety Board castigated the Coast Guard at a news conference Monday for failing to require safety management systems for small vessels “How many deaths have to occur? How many injuries have to occur? How many families have to stand up here at a press conference grieving for their loves ones before action is taken?” Homendy said as she stood near a plaque at Santa Barbara Harbor that commemorates the Conception victims. “And how many times does Congress [have to] tell the Coast Guard to take action?” speaks Monday at Santa Barbara Harbor while among family members of those whose died on the dive boat Conception five years ago (Richard Winton / Los Angeles Times) Homendy said her agency has made recommendations dating back more than two decades for safety management systems — most recently after the Conception fire She sent a letter Monday to the Homeland Security secretary and the head of the Coast Guard asking to implement change “with all possible haste.” wrote that it had been “dilgently working” on a notice of a proposed rule making with “all due haste” on safety management systems But Homendy said that explanation is unacceptable “given the lengthy inaction.” “We’re gonna die,” one passenger was heard during a haunting, 24-second video recorded by passenger Patricia Ann Beitzinger according to evidence presented at the the 2023 federal criminal trial of Conception Capt The video shows the dark outlines of people trapped in the bunk room as the fire approaches The voices are muffled and difficult to hear but prosecutors supplied a transcript to jurors during Boylan’s trial: “There’s got to be a way out.” “There’s got to be more extinguishers.” All 33 passengers and one crew member would die of smoke inhalation The Conception as it appeared at sunrise on Labor Day in 2019, after the fire that left 34 people on board dead. (National Transportation Safety Board) Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined that the fire started in a plastic trash can on the main deck on what was to be the final day of a three-day dive trip. At the time, such bins were forbidden in all vessels’ sleeping areas, and banned from all compartments on newer boats, but were allowed on old ones such as the Conception, records show. But Homendy said Monday that although the fire may have been caused by cigarattes thrown in a trash can, “more than likely” it was lithium ion batteries from phones and photography that were being charged. The families have complained for years about what they call foot-dragging by authorities. They also have expressed anger over Boylan remaining free while he appeals his conviction. “We have no rights, we are given no consideration,” said Kathleen McIlvain, who son Charlie McIlvain is among those who died on the Conception. “It wasn’t an accident, it was a disaster waiting to happen,” said Vicki Moore, whose husband, Raymond “Scott” Chan, 59, and daughter Kendra Chan, 26, died. Speaking at the harbor Monday, she said that although reforms have been made, without the implementation of safety management systems the tragedy will repeat itself. Meanwhile, lawsuits against the Conception’s owners, Truth Aquatics and its boss, Glen Fritzler, remain unresolved. NTSB recommendations in the wake of the Conception tragedy for fire detection systems, proper dual escape routes, emergency escape drills and checks on night watches have been implemented. Congress mandated those provisions in December 2020 as part of the Elijah E. Cummings Coast Guard Authorization Act. But Homendy said that safety gaps persist even with those reforms, and that the Coast Guard has yet to show how it is monitoring those changes. The rear admiral of the Coast Guard said in a 2021 congressional hearing that in weighing new rules, it is required to consider the economic costs and benefits of implementation. Homendy said she keeps hearing about the cost, but motioning to the grieving families, she added, “This is the cost.” “I am begging the Coast Guard to take action,” she said. “If the companies aren’t going to do it, who’s there to protect safety?” Prosecutors accused Boylan of a slipshod approach to training, leaving everyone on board responsible for their own safety. Boylan’s lawyer said the lack of a roving watch and the approach to safety training had been part of “the Fritzler way” for decades, referring to the boat’s owner. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker 1958.Courtesy of the National Park Service Discover our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary Program Frequently Asked Questions ^TOP Download the NPS app to navigate the parks on the go then Ménard Dworkind Architecture & Design has lavished their concept for a cabin retreat with blessings nature-adjacent answer to Airbnb—may look like a simple rectangular box treatments and storage solutions that are far from standard They might even have the weekend renter wishing they could move in The cedar-clad Hinterhouse was conceived for a young tech entrepreneur who wanted a country house for himself He’d been looking at prefabs from a Quebec company but when he realized the level of interior customization was limited he turned to Montreal-based Ménard Dworkind to design a home so that he could use one as his personal cabin the client instead saw an opportunity in renting his 100-square-metre cabin to nature-starved city folk (He’s since invested in the design and construction of a second cabin with plans to continue adding to the series of one-of-a-kind rental retreats.) Because the design phase of Hinterhouse was a bit like getting all dressed up with no place to go—there was a brief for a two-bedroom cabin set out focusing on the things he and his team could control “All we knew was the house would be set in nature,” Dworkind says adding they inserted ample glazing on both sides of the rectangle to maximize the connection to the great outdoors they concentrated on details and materiality The offset pattern is repeated on sliding screens that can be pulled in front of the windows for privacy and light control (a stand-alone sauna got the same exterior TLC) from double-duty furnishings in the kitchen to hidden storage spaces “There’s way more storage than you’d need for a weekend getaway the client was going to live in the house,” Dworkind says the team concentrated services in a black plywood cube in the centre of the otherwise blond-wood rectangle The cube conceals electrical and other mechanical parts but also closets and drawers in the bedrooms Another intelligent solution for the kitchen is the hybrid island With the insertion over the sink of a cutting board in the same material as the coun­tertop This hybrid island comes to life not only at dinner parties—thanks to a built-in herb garden it’s become part of its verdant surroundings in the Laurentians Looking out at the valley from the miniature garden in the kitchen island the life inside connects with the life outdoors You sense the cabin itself is an island—a sanctuary—for urbanites escaping the city and the pandemic Susan Nerberg is a writer and editor based in Montreal Why We Need Embodied Carbon Benchmarks and Targets in Building Standards and Policies: An Open Letter Carleton architecture students share design ideas for 24 Sussex Drive New Espace Citoyen des Confluents transforms former industrial site into sustainable… Poise and Flow: University of Manitoba Desautels Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba Canadian Classic: Canadian Canoe Museum, Peterborough, Ontario Public Good: Montreal City Hall modernization, Montreal, Quebec 07mayAll Day14sepGroundwork Exhibition - Canadian Centre for ArchitectureMontreal, Quebec Groundwork is a three-part film and exhibition series exploring the conceptual development and field research of contemporary architects cultivating alternative modes of engagement with new project sites the CCA will take a critical look at how designers across diverse geographies and contexts engage with their environments in preliminary phases of projects and stages of transformation will be highlighted as revelatory aspects of architectural work that help to deepen our understanding of new critical modes of practice and engagement the project questions how different architects situate themselves in relation to changing natural and disciplinary boundaries The exhibition is on from now until September 14 For more information, click here 13febAll Day11mayElana Herzog - ExhibitionToronto, Ontario This exhibition surveys the 35 year career of Toronto-born Brooklyn-based artist Elana Herzog and is curated by internationally Canadian artist Jessica Stockholder It features a new site-responsive installation made This exhibition surveys the 35 year career of Toronto-born Brooklyn-based artist Elana Herzog and is curated by internationally Canadian artist Jessica Stockholder It features a new site-responsive installation made using wallpaper designed by the artist Part of Herzog’s process is to encrust textiles onto – and into – different surfaces explains “while working in the building trades I became intimately acquainted with the built environment and how it is constructed On a very personal level I learned about how systems interact and are installed in buildings – what’s behind the walls and under the floors.” Her work can be described as a form of domestic archeology often engaging architecture and other more intimate forms of material culture For more information, click here 01mayAll Day30Arthur Erickson: Design in MindVancouver, British Columbia The Arthur Erickson Foundation has announced the world premiere of ArthurErickson: Design in Mind The immersive pop-up exhibition will run from now until May 30 This experience marks the culmination of the AE100 Centennial Celebration a year-long series of events honouring the life and work of architect Arthur Erickson For more information, click here 08mayAll DayTMU Department of Architectural Science Year End Show 2025Toronto, Ontario Toronto Metropolitan University's Department of Architectural Science encourages its students to test boundaries and apply their skill to prevailing issues present within their evolving surroundings Toronto Metropolitan University’s Department of Architectural Science encourages its students to test boundaries The annual Year End Show presents the culmination of the 2024-25 academic term showcasing the impressive and cutting-edge works of our top students in all four years of study and at the graduate level For more information, click here To view this year’s thesis booklet, click here 08mayAll Day14University of Montreal - Cohort 2025Montreal, Quebec The annual exhibition of graduates from the Faculty of Planning at UdeM will soon be back for an extended 2025 edition A full week to admire the innovative projects of future architects For more information, click here 09mayAll Day11housed…[un]housed...[re]housed… 2025 SymposiumToronto, Ontario The housed…[un]housed...[re]housed… symposium will shine its academic light on our affordable housing and unhoused crisis in Toronto Given our recent pressing issues and experiences with affordability issues The housed…[un]housed…[re]housed… symposium will shine its academic light on our affordable housing and unhoused crisis in Toronto the symposium will probe and discuss precedents with a critical and multi-disciplinary lens and expand on the Fair Housing Act discourse which prohibits discrimination and the Ontario Human Rights Commission that housing is a human right For more information, click here 09may7:00 pm10:00 pmPresence roma XLV exhibition - CambridgeCambridge, Ontario The University of Waterloo School of Architecture class of 2025 is proud to reaffirm its  long-standing Presence in Rome with an exhibit of our design projects For more information, click here 13mayAll DayUniversité de Montréal School of Architecture's 60th anniversaryMontreal, Quebec Come and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Université de Montréal School of Architecture on Tuesday the school is preparing a commemorative catalog and visuals to reminisce on the school’s 60-year history since joining the Université de Montréal To register for the event, click here 14mayAll Day24City Building 2025 - Call for SubmissionsToronto, Ontario This is an exhibition of contemporary works by artists who explore our changing urban environment while looking at local architecture and urban issues Artists interested in participating are being asked to send a image list, current CV /artist statement, and 4 to 6 jpegs to [email protected] Selected artists will pay $40 per selected work The exhibition will be on display from May 14 to 24 For more information, click here 24mayAll Day25Doors Open TorontoToronto, Ontario Doors Open Toronto invites the public to explore the city’s most-loved buildings and sites The event provides rare access to buildings that are not usually The event provides rare access to buildings that are not usually open to the public and free access to sites that would usually charge an admission fee it has attracted more than two million visits to nearly 700 unique locations and remains the largest event of its kind in Canada For more information, click here started in a plastic trash can on the main deck a confidential report reviewed by The Times shows Investigators with the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives built a full-scale mock-up of the middle deck of the 75-foot vessel in their quest to determine the fire’s point of origin and cause They conducted a series of burn tests at their Maryland research lab which concluded the blaze began in a rubbish container and then quickly spread The findings add to the mystery of what caused the deadliest maritime disaster in modern California history said the bureau would not comment on the report which has not been publicly disclosed because of ongoing criminal and civil court proceedings involving the inferno wooden-hulled Conception was anchored off Santa Cruz Island The excursion was at the tail end of a three-day dive trip used a dinghy to paddle to a neighboring boat for help ATF investigators focused on a 23-gallon Rubbermaid Slim Jim garbage bin that sat beneath the stairs of the main deck Officials noted how one crew member heard crackling sounds from below and spotted the fire at the bottom of the stairs The inferno blocked the escape route of those bedded down on the bottom deck In a motion filed Thursday seeking to dismiss the case, Boylan’s attorneys referenced the ATF investigation, noting the bureau “could not determine the cause of the fire.” Conception crew members asked these boat owners for help one saying his girlfriend was still below deck Multiple re-creations of the fire by ATF investigators showed a wall of flames blocking all escape routes on the Conception within minutes of ignition When a breeze was added to simulate possible winds blowing on Platte’s Harbor the night the fire erupted concluded that “after conducting a systematic fire scene examination examining pre-fire and fire photographs and videos considering fire dynamics,” agents determined “the fire originated in the garbage container located under the staircase.” A Marine Board of Investigation by the Coast Guard has been delayed because of criminal proceedings in the case Investigators have studied the burned hull of the Conception as well as thousands of pieces of evidence and examined a sister vessel owned by Truth Aquatics Inc. that was nearly identical to the Conception Although the fire’s point of origin was determined investigators still have not learned what ignited and the ATF said the cause remains “undetermined as investigators cannot rule out discarded smoking material the open flame ignition of combustible materials such as paper towels located with the garbage container or an event unknown to investigators.” A salvage team raises the hull of the Conception off Santa Cruz Island (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) The 197-page report noted that Boylan smoked cigarettes Two crew members also tested positive for marijuana but denied smoking onboard A birthday celebration with candles took place the day before the fire but survivors said the candles were all extinguished ATF officials cited crew member Mickey Kohls telling NTSB and Coast Guard investigators he emptied four smaller trash bins into the 23-gallon receptacle about 2:35 a.m by a popping sound and saw a glow from the middle deck The NTSB reported in 2020 that there were polyethylene trash cans made by Rubbermaid throughout the Conception that were “highly combustible.” At the time such bins were forbidden in all vessels’ sleeping areas and banned from all compartments on newer boats the Coast Guard issued a critical safety alert to passenger vessel operators urging them not to use such garbage cans The alert came three months after a 153-foot sightseeing vessel caught fire and suffered major damage while docked NTSB officials reiterated Friday their report on the Conception fire noting that “polyethylene trash cans are .. susceptible to accidental fires.” The officials cited the board findings that while a definitive ignition source could not be determined the fire most likely was caused by “the electrical distribution system of the vessel The board concluded “that the origin of the fire on the Conception was likely inside the aft portion of the salon.” It said “if the fire had started on the exterior of the salon in the area of the stairs to the upper deck it would be reasonable to expect that the fire would have spread vertically igniting the stairs above and spreading to the upper deck before it spread horizontally and into the salon compartment.” But ATF investigators conducted a fire test in the trash can with a 3-knot breeze and the flames consumed the salon area quickly A little over two minutes into the re-created fire and by the 10-minute mark a nearby life ring was engulfed as a major blaze burned under the staircase A photo taken from the escape hatch below deck looking up into the salon showed a wall of flames 14 minutes into the test video “This is one of the most thorough investigations of a vessel fire I have seen,” said an official who was deeply involved in examining evidence from the Conception fire but was not authorized to discuss it publicly “They did everything possible to re-create the fire.” The ATF said it found no evidence to support that the fire started where a tangled web of lithium batteries had been charging although it noted that such batteries can ignite when they malfunction As a result of the fire, Coast Guard regulators placed strict new standards on charging stations aboard vessels A plaque memorializes the 34 lives lost in the Conception fire (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) A Santa Barbara County coroner’s report determined all of the Conception’s victims died of smoke inhalation Glen Fritzler has denied wrongdoing and insisted that crew members were awake when the fire was detected Victims’ families have filed multiple lawsuits against Fritzler and his company for wrongful death Kathleen McIlvain, whose 44-year-old son, Charles McIlvain said the ATF report is important “if it bolsters the manslaughter case and sends the captain to prison.” The families also are suing the U.S. Coast Guard, alleging its inspectors allowed Fritzler to operate the Conception despite its having substandard electrical and safety systems the Coast Guard certified the boat to carry up to 40 passengers overnight “even though her electrical wiring systems fire detection and suppression systems and passenger accommodation escape hatch were in open and obvious violation of” federal regulations NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy sent a letter Thursday to the Coast Guard emphasizing the need to expeditiously implement safety-management system (SMS) regulations the board believes would have detected unsafe practices on the Conception A commercial diving boat caught fire near the shoreline of Santa Cruz Island Many aboard the boat were believed to be sleeping below deck when the fire broke out in the pre-dawn hours The Conception dive boat is seen in an undated photo before the fatal blaze. (National Transportation Safety Board) A 24-second video that federal investigators recovered from a victim’s badly damaged cellphone recorded a relatively calm but increasingly desperate scene as smoke seeped into the dive boat’s bunk room according to relatives of two unrelated victims who viewed the footage as well as authorities involved in the NTSB investigation who confirmed the contents of the video you see smoke coming in from some of the fans and down the stairwell,” said a man who lost his sister in the fire “People are walking around looking for a way to get out there’s got to be another way out of here,’ and their voices weren’t panicked at first.” The phone that recorded the video seemed to have been set down purposefully to capture the scene in the cramped cabin as smoke collects at first along the ceiling and then begins to fill the room made a mayday call to the Coast Guard at 3:14 a.m Crew members tried to get to the lower decks but were turned back by flames and smoke filled the wheelhouse,” Boylan wrote in an account to NTSB investigators saying he was forced to leap into the water because of the intensity of the fire A crew member told investigators that when Boylan came to the surface of the water after jumping overboard High School Sports Print Jerry Boylan the captain of the Conception dive boat where 34 people died amid smoke and flame over Labor Day weekend in 2019 was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for negligence that contributed to the disaster District Judge George Wu said he found Boylan “incredibly remorseful” and that he had not “intended to do something bad.” The judge called it “one of the most difficult sentencings I’ve ever done” and said he was taking the 70-year-old Boylan’s age and health into account as well as the unlikelihood that he would re-offend The judge also rejected the prosecution’s claim that Boylan had abandoned his ship Boylan began to tremble and wipe away tears He could have received up to 10 years in federal prison for his conviction on what is colloquially called seaman’s manslaughter The lighter sentence — and the fact that the judge is allowing Boylan to remain free until after a restitution hearing — left many of the victims’ family members furious After a two-week trial, a federal jury in November found Boylan committed gross negligence in the deaths of the 33 passengers and one crew member who were trapped in a windowless bunk room when the boat caught fire before dawn on Sept Boylan had been a captain for 34 years but failed to appoint an overnight watch ignoring the Certificate of Inspection requirements hanging in his own wheelhouse Nor did he institute adequate fire safety drills. Prosecutors argued that this left his poorly trained, panic-stricken crew effectively useless amid the fire, which possibly originated in a trash can sometime after 2:35 a.m. As the flames spread, blocking the exits for those crowded in the bunk room below, a member of Boylan’s crew twice ran right by a 50-foot fire hose overhead. Boylan himself called in a Mayday at 3:14 a.m. and jumped overboard, which prosecutors described as abandoning ship. But Boylan’s attorneys with the federal public defender’s office called it “an unstoppable inferno” and said there was little he could have done after waking amid the flames. His attorneys also argued that Boylan, in failing to use an overnight watch, was merely following the custom of the company that owned the boat, Truth Aquatics, and did not know that he was imperiling passengers. Prosecutors called it the “blaming your boss” defense. Conception dive boat Captain Jerry Boylan’s criminal prosecution has become a battle over negligence on the seas Families of the fire victims packed the ninth-floor courtroom in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday Many came with posters of their loved ones and some wore shirts that said “34 fearless divers” and “forever remembered.” For nearly two hours families read victim impact statements to the judge Yadira Alvarez said her 16-year-old daughter As she displayed photos of her daughter on the screen She demanded the maximum 10-year sentence for Boylan even though “10 years for him is nothing,” adding: “He is not a victim.” the families endured graphic testimony about the effort to recover the bodies from the charred boat 56 feet below the surface found on an iPhone recovered from the wreck On the tape, voices could be heard exclaiming, “There’s got to be a way out!” and “There’s got to be more extinguishers!” and “We’re gonna die ...!” Boylan did not testify and has remained free since his conviction. Prosecutors said he was guilty of manslaughter if his negligence caused even one of the 34 deaths. Boylan’s lawyers, and his supporters, pleaded for leniency before the sentencing. “There’s no way to undo this tragedy,” said defense attorney Georgina Wakefield. “Mr. Boylan is not a bad man. He wishes every day that he could go back in time and change what happened. ... I’ve never represented anybody who is as grief-stricken.” Defense attorneys argued that none of the Truth Aquatics boats, nor any other boat in the waters off Santa Barbara, used a roving night watch at the time, and that it was unfair “to punish him for the failings of an entire industry.” Giving Boylan a stiff prison term would not serve to deter further catastrophes like this one, the attorneys argued, since the dive boat industry has already implemented safety reforms as a result of the Conception fire. Facing a flurry of lawsuits, the owner of the Conception dive boat that burned and killed 34, has sold the two remaining boats in its fleet. Defense attorneys asked the judge to sentence Boylan to house arrest and community service, characterizing him as a man with “almost no family” whose “job was his life.” He was now an isolated 70-year-old man who sleeps 1½ hours most nights, rarely leaves home and “has been crippled with pain and guilt in the years since the accident,” according to a pre-sentencing defense memo. The memo said Boylan, who was making a wage of around $44,000 after decades as a boat captain, now survives on Social Security and can’t afford payments on the trailer where he lives. Baron Kelly, who worked on Boylan’s crews and considered him a mentor in seamanship, described him as among “the most conservative” of the Truth Aquatics captains, a skipper who drilled his crews in how to handle dive-related emergencies. “I have spoken with Jerry many times since the accident and his grief is colossal,” Kelly wrote in a letter to the judge. “At one point he told me he was sleeping in his living room because his bedroom didn’t have enough emergency exits. Some days when I would reach out, he was too distraught by grief to speak at all.” Another of Boylan’s former crew members, Shannan Johnson, described him as “one of the company’s most reliable and responsible captains.” “Jerry is a good man. He did his best and then some,” Johnson wrote to the judge. “Yet that night the negligence was trusting that what had been safe and successful for 30 years all of a sudden wasn’t.” Christopher Goffard is an author and a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. He shared in the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s Bell coverage and has twice been a Pulitzer finalist for feature writing, in 2007 and 2014. His novel “Snitch Jacket” was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel. His book “You Will See Fire: A Search for Justice in Kenya,” based on his Times series, was published in 2011. World & Nation Show Search Search Query Submit Search Don't Miss Print LOMPOC Calif. — In the spiritual tradition of the Chumash people it’s revered as the “Western Gate” — a portal through which the souls of the dead enter paradise its known as the dreaded “Cape Horn of the Pacific,” a passage where many vessels have been lost to powerful gales it’s the perfect isolated launch pad for spacecraft Most recently, conservationists demolished a 56-year-old stone-and-mortar dam that was preventing federally endangered Southern California steelhead from reaching ancient spawning grounds in Point Conception’s highlands. Removal of the dam this month has reopened a vital link to survival for a species on the brink of extinction. Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change “We’re transforming much of Point Conception into a platform for conservation research and ecological recovery projects,” said Mark Reynolds a lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy which in 2017 purchased 24,329 acres of land in the area from a New England investment firm to protect it from development “Our findings will provide glimpses into California’s coastal future.” A monarch butterfly lands on flowers at the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve Schaben / Los Angeles Times) “As fascinating as the past has been for such a place we still have a lot to learn about its plants insects and other organisms on land and offshore — and how they depend upon one another,” said Reynolds director of the conservancy’s Point Conception Institute The property has been renamed the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve after the entrepreneurs and longtime environmental preservation advocates who donated $165 million to buy it The landscape is the focus of more than 100 ongoing scientific studies and ecological recovery projects led by an alliance of researchers from universities and federal agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration They are applying advanced scientific tools including genetic analysis and hyperspectral sensors onboard satellites able to map places rich in biological diversity and provide weed warnings before invasions occur The swirling currents offshore also happen to be a convergence zone where the warm waters of Mexico meet the chilly currents of Alaska and the periodic shifts in ocean temperature known as La Niña and El Niño bring an ever-changing variety of fish and other pelagic creatures research projects have shed new light on the evolutionary history of California’s coastal landscapes Subscribers get exclusive access to this story We’re offering L.A. Times subscribers special access to our best journalism. Thank you for your support.Explore more Subscriber Exclusive content “It’ll take decades to fully understand the unique adaptations and competition for resources that characterize life in Point Conception,” Reynolds said 2023An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve as the Desmond Preserve The Dangermond Preserve — eight miles of undisturbed coastline 6,000 acres of woodlands and 300 acres of wetlands — appears essentially as wild as it did when prehistoric Chumash occupied its coastal plain and fished its waters Threatened brown pelicans skim in formation inches off the waves. Cormorants bob in the swell. Oystercatchers forage along rocky shores. Golden eagles wheel over forested hills and streams shared by black bears which are under consideration for listing as a federally threatened species coyotes prey on birds that nest in the sand Visitors can look down from the bluffs and spot sea otters, kelp forests patrolled by great white sharks and fabled blue whales spraying the horizon with their 30-foot geysers of steamy breath. A view of the Point Conception Lighthouse, which was built in 1881. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Point Conception is the northernmost coastal range of the California black walnut tree, and the northernmost range of the roadrunner, said Laura Riege, restoration manager of the preserve. “Exactly why that is remains a biological mystery.” Access to the preserve is restricted. It includes a working cattle operation, but in a way that also allows wildlife to roam and remain vital, Riege said. To balance the needs of cattle and wildlife, selected slopes are grazed to keep grasses and shrubs low enough for low-flying raptors such as harriers to spot gophers and other prey more easily. In other areas, grazing is controlled to prevent erosion and allow native plants and flowers to flourish. The preserve is not without problems, some of them daunting. Ambitious campaigns are underway to restore populations of endangered white and also black abalone. Once so plentiful that their shells served as throw-away ashtrays, the succulent marine invertebrates were all but wiped out by persistent fishing, slow-to-react management and disease. Riege was overjoyed on a recent morning when she discovered a tiny patch of federally endangered Gaviota tarplant crowned with delicate yellow flowers growing amid 1,000 acres of ice plant targeted for removal. The invasive plants blanket the promontory hosting Point Conception Light, a lighthouse built in 1881 that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on the Gaviota Coast. “Look at this!” she said, squeezing a leaf. The plant’s distinctive pungent odor of citrus and crankcase oil lingered on her fingers. “It’s a real survivor.” A deer looks out on the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times) The same could be said for the federally endangered Southern California steelhead, with an estimated 500 left on Earth scattered across coastal waters between San Luis Obispo and the Mexican border, including the mouth of the preserve’s Jalama Creek. Steelhead trout once packed the natural pools of Southern California’s spawning rivers — until the waterways were transformed into reservoirs and concrete drainage canals. The species, known scientifically as Oncorhynchus mykiss, begins life as a native rainbow trout. For still-unknown reasons, some migrate to the ocean and become steelheads after undergoing physical changes that allow them to return to spawn over freshwater gravel beds. Raising her voice to be heard over the thwack thwack thwack of helicopters airlifting out the debris from the dam that had stopped the steelhead’s annual spawning pilgrimage, Riege said, “For the next three years, we’ll be conducting underwater snorkel surveys of the biological responses to this demolition project. “In a few years, I guarantee this place is going to be even more amazing than it already is. We call it ecological restoration work.” Los Angeles Times staff photographer Allen J. Schaben is an award-winning journalist capturing a wide range of images over the past 34 years. Before joining The Times, he honed his craft at the Detroit Free Press, Dallas Morning News, Wichita Eagle and Connecticut Post. Schaben earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1993. Climate & Environment Print SANTA BARBARA — When the Conception first hit the water in the early 1980s the personal electronics revolution was decades away Divers who boarded the 75-foot boat for excursions to the Channel Islands brought film cameras There were no smartphones to plug in or the array of other electronic devices now used to take underwater photos But when the vessel set off decades later on its fateful Labor Day weekend voyage And they plugged their equipment into a series of outlets concealed in the back of foam-filled The Conception was raised from the depths of Platts Harbor and is now at the Port Hueneme naval facility, where the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives national incident team of leading fire experts are examining the power, fuel and electrical systems, federal officials said. As the investigation continues, the U.S. Coast Guard took the unprecedented step of recommending that owners of passenger vessels immediately urge crews to “reduce potential fire hazards and consider limiting the unsupervised charging of lithium-ion batteries and extensive use of power strips and extension cords.” Divers and others in the boat world said the electrical systems of boats such as the Conception have been put to the test in recent years as the number of electronics brought on board has increased As investigators try to find the cause of the fire aboard the Conception the ship’s design and escape routes are drawing scrutiny (Lorena Elebee and Kyle Kim / Los Angeles Times) Competing for limited plug space are batteries for strobe lights GoPro chargers and lithium-ion batteries for cellphones and tablets “People have rechargeable everything these days,” said veteran diver Ben Wolfe a retired Los Angeles County Fire Department captain who dived off the Conception two weeks before its fiery demise “I had a battery like a TV camera battery that powered my underwater scooter plugged in each night.” The 34 people who lost their lives in the Conception boat fire included a teenager as young as 17 and adults in their 60s One of the crew members, Ryan Sims, has filed a lawsuit against the Conception’s owners, alleging Truth Aquatics Inc., Worldwide Diving Adventures and boat owner Glen Fritzler failed to properly train crew members, give adequate safety or medical equipment and provide safety rules. Sims said in court documents he was awakened by loud noises to discover the already-raging fire. He jumped from the top deck, where he had been sleeping, and broke his leg, before joining four other crew members in a dinghy they took to a nearby boat to call for help. Some of the crew returned to the burning Conception, but the boat was engulfed in flames and no one else on board, including one additional crew member, was found. Statistics gathered by insurers and industry watchdogs show that about 55% of shipboard fires in smaller vessels are related to electrical systems. Given the boat had an electric galley and no propane or gasoline, investigators will look at the electrical systems and appliances and their interaction with combustibles, said John McDevitt, a former assistant fire chief, marine surveyor and chairman of the National Fire Protection Assn. “The environment and salty air plays havoc with the electrical system,” he said. “Electricity is challenging on a boat. With all those charging stations running through an old circuit, it is probably electrical.” The Conception had passed U.S. Coast Guard inspection before the fire, and the electrical system met federal guidelines. But experts said frayed, loose or improperly connected wiring behind the walls could have ignited a fire. The volume of device batteries being charged could also have overloaded the wiring, causing it to heat up and start the blaze. While many systems are designed to shut down when overloaded, sometimes the wiring cannot handle the capacity. Despite federal law requiring that a night watchman remain awake at all times, the entire crew of the Conception was asleep when a deadly fire ignited, NTSB investigators find. McDevitt, chairman of a National Fire Protection Assn. committee on small boat protection, said despite the charred wreckage of the Conception, which had its top deck, middle deck and much of the bunk deck burned out, there will be clues for veteran fire investigators to decipher the chain of events that led to the inferno. “There will be telltale signs of what happened,” he said. The age of the wiring, and whether it had been updated, could also be a factor. “It is hard to say its condition,” McDevitt said. Beyond the wiring, there are other possibilities: an exploding or smoldering lithium-ion battery, a fraying connection cord or a mismatched charger, experts said. A former second captain of the Conception, who asked not to be identified given the public attention, told The Times that divers brought a wide array of electronics on previous trips. “They use a lot of cameras — a large number of daisy chains of electronics — and sometimes it seems like too much into one outlet,” he said. “We are talking top-of-the-line cameras one after another, not cellphones. We are talking about big batteries.” where 34 people were killed in California’s worst maritime fire in recent history was a “compliant fire trap,” one expert said a Beverly Hills-based dive company owner who acts as a consultant to Los Angeles County’s coroner on diving fatalities estimated that a third of the divers on any given excursion are underwater photographers who bring along large numbers of electronics that need charging “One of my friends [once] found a frayed cord on their battery charger,” he said Lithium-ion batteries have grabbed plenty of headlines with exploding laptops cellphones burning in pockets and airline restrictions on their carriage The U.S. Navy and others in the dive industry also have expressed concerns about lithium batteries. Conception, the boat that caught fire off Channel Islands. (Truth Aquatics) Wolfe, the retired fire captain who had traveled aboard the Conception a handful of times, said the bench on the boat with the outlets was not only a place to charge batteries and electronics. “The space down behind the cushion often had T-shirts, towels and bottles of wine because it was a place to store them and stop them from rolling around,” said Wolfe, who wondered whether the cushions could have provided fuel for the blaze. He also questioned why the vessel’s smoke detectors wouldn’t have been triggered by the fire, alerting the crew to the blaze sooner. Investigators seek cause of deadly fire aboard California dive boat The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report found that the entire crew was asleep before the blaze was discovered and the Conception did not have a roaming watchman Kurtis and others were stunned by the disaster in part because the boat owner has a strong reputation in the boating industry “Truth Aquatics was the last boat you think would burn,” he said “The questions everyone is asking is: How did this fire start And how and why did it spread so quickly?” Print After a day of deliberations a federal court jury in Los Angeles on Monday found former Conception dive boat captain Jerry Boylan guilty of gross negligence in the deaths of 34 people in the fiery maritime disaster The ship caught fire in the early morning hours of Sept. 2, 2019, while it was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, trapping 33 passengers and one crew member in the bunk room Boylan, then 66, woke up amid the smoke and flames, called in a mayday and jumped overboard, actions that prosecutors said amounted to abandoning his ship. The 34 people crowded in the windowless bunk room lived for minutes after he did so, but they had no exit — the stairs and the escape hatch were blocked by flames. Boylan’s attorneys with the federal public defender’s office argued that there was little he could do by the time he woke up to “an unstoppable inferno,” and that the fire hoses were unusable because they were ablaze. Jurors will now decide whether Jerry Boylan, captain of the dive boat where 34 died in a 2019 fire, is guilty of manslaughter. Defense attorneys said Boylan learned how to run a boat from Glen Fritzler, the owner of the Conception and the company Truth Aquatics, whose boats did not use an overnight watch. Boylan, who had been with the company for decades, did not know that doing things “the Fritzler way” was endangering people, the defense attorneys argued. Federal prosecutors derided the argument as the “blaming your boss” defense, and said he had “rolled the dice” with his passengers’ lives. The courtroom was packed throughout the two-week trial by families of the fire victims, who have followed the case closely during the four years it took to reach trial. After the verdict, the families wept and embraced in the hallway, saying “we did it” and “we got it.” “We’ve waited four years for the guilty verdict, and it’s just a feeling like we can move forward a little with our lives,” said Susana Rosas, 65, who lost three daughters and her ex-husband in the fire. Rosas sat in the 9th floor courtroom in downtown Los Angeles for every day of the trial, at times listening to graphic testimony about the effort to recover the bodies from the charred wreck of the Conception, 56 feet below the surface. She learned that one of her daughters, Evan Quitasol, a 37-year-old nurse, was found huddled tightly with two other victims, Charles McIlvain, 44, and Alexandra “Allie” Kurtz, 26. “As hard as it was, it was comforting to know she died embracing someone else,” she said. “They weren’t alone. No one there was alone.” Boylan, who did not testify, will remain free until U.S. District Judge George Wu sentences him on Feb. 8. He could face up to 10 years in federal prison. Even the maximum sentence feels lenient for Boylan’s crime, Rosas said, adding that it seems “such a short amount of time for him to serve, for 34 people.” Boylan had ignored the Certificate of Inspection hanging in his own wheelhouse, which spelled out the need for an overnight watch in capital letters. “He didn’t follow policies and protocols. Other captains in the area weren’t either. They thought it was OK to do that,” Rosas said. “We were the unlucky ones.” As a result of the tragedy, the Coast Guard has tightened regulations, and more boats are implementing overnight watches. But “it’s too late for our families,” Rosas said. Jurors deliberated all day while the victims’ families waited in the hallway, and a verdict finally came at 4:30 p.m. “I was so worried because it went on so long today,” said McIlvain’s mother, Kathleen. “I couldn’t imagine how any jury wouldn’t know he was guilty.” She said Boylan had failed the people who had entrusted him with their lives. “He didn’t do his duty as a captain,” she said. “He abandoned ship. He abandoned them, and we never did.” She and other families are already trying to write their victim-impact statements, which they will deliver to the judge at Boylan’s sentencing next year. She said she doesn’t know how she will do it. “They died such horrific deaths,” McIlvain said. “We couldn’t even see them. We didn’t want that to be the last memory of Charlie.” Among the items recovered from the wreck was an iPhone with a 24-second video, recorded by one of the passengers in her final minutes as flames encroached on the bunk room. Prosecutors played it during the trial, but the FBI had allowed family members to see it long before. On the video, McIlvain could hear her son exclaiming, “There’s got to be a way out!” and “There’s got to be more extinguishers!” “The last voice I have of him is on the video in the bunk room, and he wasn’t giving up,” she said. Business That theory was called into question when some of the dead were found to have been wearing their shoes, leading investigators to speculate they had tried to escape before the ship was engulfed in flames. 10:36 a.m. Dec. 22, 2022An earlier headline on this story said 33 people died in the boat fire. The Conception boat fire killed 34. Now, more than three years after one of the country’s deadliest maritime accidents, a sobering piece of evidence has put the question to rest, showing conclusively that the divers were awake and searching for a way off the boat in the minutes after crew members had jumped into the water. A salvage team raises the hull of the Conception off Santa Cruz Island. (Brian van der Brug/AP) A 24-second video federal investigators recovered from a victim’s badly damaged phone recorded the relatively calm, but increasingly desperate scene as smoke seeped below deck into the dive boat’s bunk room, according to relatives of two unrelated victims who viewed the footage, as well as authorities involved in the investigation who confirmed the contents of the video. In the video, “the fire alarm is going off ... you see smoke coming in from some of the fans and down the stairwell,” said a man who lost his sister in the fire. “People are walking around looking for a way to get out. Someone says, ‘Hey, there’s got to be another way out of here,’ and their voices weren’t panicked at first.” The cell phone that recorded the video, the man said, seems to have been set down purposefully to capture the scene in the cramped cabin as smoke collects at first along the ceiling and then begins to fill the room. “They couldn’t find a way out,” said the man, who asked not to be identified to protect his privacy. In the early morning hours on Labor Day 2019, the 75-foot, wood-hulled Conception was anchored just off Santa Cruz Island, about 27 miles from Santa Barbara, during a three-day dive trip. Five members of the crew were sleeping in the wheelhouse area atop the three-deck vessel, while 33 recreational divers and a crew member slept in a bunk room on the bottom level. “I opened both doors and smoke filled the wheelhouse,” Boylan wrote in an account to investigators saying he had been forced to leap into the water because of the intensity of the fire. A crew member recalled to investigators that when Boylan came to the surface of the water, he said, “Oh my God, all those people.” Boylan told investigators he tried to reboard the boat but could not. “Flames were coming up to the side doors,” he recalled. The boat’s galley on the middle floor was fully engulfed and he saw “flames coming out all windows.” Boylan and the other crew members were already in the water when the diver who made the video started recording at 3:17 a.m., three minutes after Boylan made the mayday call, according to relatives of two unrelated victims who said FBI agents explained the sequence of events to them. A couple whose son died in the fire said they watched the video at an FBI office last month. The mother, who asked not to be named, recalled that faces were discernible and that she saw a man “pull up his cowl-neck shirt to shield himself from the smoke.” She said that man and another diver were trying to find a way out near the stairwell that led to the galley on the floor above. Then, she said, the video captured a loud noise and someone saying, “Oh f—.” The cause of the noise was not clear. “They didn’t die in their sleep like they first said,” the mother said. “They died terrified, knowing they were going to die. Even there at the end, they weren’t giving up. They are trying to problem-solve.” Conception, the boat that caught fire off the Channel Islands. (Truth Aquatics) By the time the video was recorded, investigators have concluded, flames had engulfed the Conception’s main deck and galley, blocking the stairway to the bunk room as well as a small emergency hatch. A Santa Barbara County coroner’s report determined all 34 people died of smoke inhalation. The only survivors were the five crew members who jumped into the water. The man whose sister died said authorities informed him a few months ago that the footage existed and that he watched the video on a secure server at the FBI’s office in Sacramento. He said he was told that the family of the female diver whose cell phone recorded the video agreed to allow relatives of other victims to view it if they wished. He said it was not clear if this was all the cell phone captured or whether the FBI forensic technicians could only recover that segment. What we know about the Conception’s escape routes The man said that after seeing it last Thursday he reached out to other families and advised them not to view it Although they were clearly desperate to escape the divers maintained a calmness that perhaps reflected their experience as divers who were used to dealing with potentially dangerous situations He said it was not clear to him whether he was shown all the footage retrieved from the phone or just a segment of it and manslaughter charges federal prosecutors have filed against Boylan “It is not uncommon for the FBI to share details with family members of victims.” Boylan has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial His attorney has said that a crew member was in the middle deck above the bunk less than half an hour before the fire was discovered The families of victims have filed multiple lawsuits against Fritzler and his company for wrongful death A plaque memorializes the 34 lives lost in the Conception fire. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) The families are also suing the U.S. Coast Guard, alleging its inspectors allowed Fritzler to operate the Conception despite its having substandard electrical and safety systems The cause of fire has not officially been determined according to the National Transportation Safety Board The Board concluded in 2020 that Boylan and Truth Aquatics failed to have crew members conduct a roving watch of the ship as is required by the U.S it is likely a crew member would have detected the fire sooner and prevented the tragedy forensic analysts examined phones recovered from the boat’s charred remains in about 65 feet of water in Platts Harbor on the northern side of Santa Cruz Island 2022: An earlier headline on this story said 33 people died in the boat fire Jerry Boylan was negligent when he failed to institute a roving night watch or conduct proper fire drills aboard the Conception before it caught fire in the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history, prosecutors say. A panel of 12 jurors and three alternates was selected and sworn in Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Boylan faces one count of neglect or misconduct by a ship officer, and has pleaded not guilty. “He’s been able to live his life while all the families cannot,” said Kathleen McIlvain, whose son Charles, 44, was killed in the fire on the 75-foot commercial diving vessel. A federal judge has ruled that prosecutors cannot refer to those killed as “victims,” deepening the anger among surviving families. The boat was anchored off the Channel Islands on Sept. 2, 2019, on the final day of a three-day trip. Around 3 a.m., a fire of unknown origin began spreading on deck. Flames blocked both exits of the bunk room below deck, where 33 passengers and one crew member found themselves trapped. Federal prosecutors allege Boylan failed to follow well-established safety protocols. Prosecutors alleged the captain failed to set a roving patrol failed to conduct fire drills and failed to sufficiently train his crew was responsible for the safety of the passengers and crew “he was the first person to jump off that boat,” and he instructed other crew members to do the same rather than fight the fire The 34 people who died “didn’t have a chance to jump overboard,” O’Brien said “They were waiting to be rescued but nobody rescued them.” The Conception dive boat was traveling in the waters off the Channel Islands and in such a remote area “sailors are their own fire department and their captain is the fire chief,” the prosecutor said Boylan did not instruct any crew member to stay awake as a so-called “roving patrol” while passengers slept even though the boat’s Certificate of Inspection spelled out the requirement in capital letters and hung on the wall behind the captain’s chair and sturdy 50-foot water hoses that could have pumped unlimited seawater on the blaze though Boylan did not train his crew in how to use the equipment “Some of them didn’t know how to use the equipment or even where it was located,” O’Brien told jurors Everyone was asleep when the fire somehow started around 3 a.m. and a galley hand woke up to see an orange glow But then “instead of trying to fight the fire defendant jumped overboard from the upper deck straight into the ocean abandoning his passengers and crew,” O’Brien said O’Brien said jurors would see a 24-second video filmed by one of the passengers trapped below deck in “the dark It was found on a phone in the coat pocket of a dead passenger but their captain had already jumped overboard,” O’Brien told jurors Some of the victims sought safety by hunkering low to the floor “They were hugging each other when they died,” O’Brien said Boylan was a licensed captain for 34 years but the crew assembled for the Labor Day weekend dive was not used to working together and when they awoke to the fire “they had no idea what to do,” O’Brien said Federal public defender Georgina Wakefield told jurors that the flames on the boat were 15 feet high and that Boylan did not abandon ship but radioed for help “even as flames surrounded the wheelhouse.” Boylan and two of his crew reboarded the boat “No amount of training can help you hold a fire hose that’s on fire.” Wakefield cast blame on Truth Aquatics owner Glen Fritzler saying he did not pay for fire training or require a crew member to keep night watch while passengers slept Boylan had followed procedures laid out by Fritzler and was drilled to follow “the Fritzler way,” the defense attorney said adding: “No Fritzler boat had a roving patrol.” The defense attorney said that Boylan “didn’t know he was putting anyone in harm’s way.” It was the boat owner’s duty to make sure regulations were followed The NTSB, which has recommended stricter safety measures as a result of the Conception fire, concluded that the lack of a roving patrol led directly to the high number of fatalities. “The crew was not able to warn passengers or aid in their escape,” an NTSB report said. “Had a crew member been awake and actively patrolling the Conception on the morning of the fire, it is likely that they would have discovered the fire at an early stage, allowing time to fight the fire and give warning to the passengers and crew to evacuate.” The NTSB concluded that Truth Aquatics had “provided ineffective oversight of its vessels’ operations,” thereby putting crew and passengers in danger. Fritzler, who has denied wrongdoing, faced a barrage of lawsuits from the relatives of dead passengers but no criminal charges. Investigative records released Wednesday provide the fullest account yet of the 2019 boat fire off the Ventura County coast that killed 34 people but they still do not pinpoint a cause of the fire Boylan’s prosecution has repeatedly run into problems. He was initially indicted by a grand jury in 2020 on 34 counts of so-called “seaman’s manslaughter,” a steamship-era law that holds captains responsible for lives lost on their vessels. Each count carried a potential 10 years in prison. Boylan’s defense argued the fire was a single incident, not separate crimes, prompting prosecutors to seek a superseding indictment on one count of seaman’s manslaughter. Last year, however, U.S. District Judge George H. Wu threw out the indictment, finding it did not specify the necessary criterion that Boylan acted with gross negligence. A month later, a grand jury indicted Boylan on a single count that specified “gross negligence.” Boylan could face 10 years behind bars if convicted. A 75-foot diving boat called the Conception caught fire off the coast of Ventura County early Monday with 39 people aboard Five crew members managed to escape the ship The rest were either found deceased or are presumed dead Here's what we know about the Conception's final voyage The Conception is a 75-foot vessel that took scuba divers to the nearby Channel Islands extensive diving opportunities and discussions about the marine ecosystem with a naturalist on board passengers and crew boarded in Santa Barbara The ship departed south before dawn on Saturday morning The Conception spent the weekend touring Santa Cruz Island, according to ship tracking data from MarineTraffic The group roamed down to the southern shore on Saturday then cruised back to the north side on Sunday The ship then settled down for the night near the shoreline at Platts Harbor Many aboard the boat are thought to have been sleeping below deck when a fire broke out in the pre-dawn hours The Conception was quickly consumed by flames The five crew members were rescued by a good Samaritan boat, the Grape Escape. The bodies of 20 deceased passengers have been found so far. The Coast Guard has called off its search and the rest are presumed dead. The agency’s preliminary report said “at the time of the fire five crewmembers were asleep in berths behind the wheelhouse and one crewmember was asleep in the bunkroom.” The boat was required by federal law to have a night watchman who was awake and could alert others to fire and other dangers Monica Rochester said a watchman typically walks through the vessel and checks equipment throughout the night that no one was on watch when the blaze broke out The fire tore through the Conception during a weekend diving expedition, trapping passengers and one crew member who were sleeping below deck as the vessel was anchored off Santa Cruz Island Officials suspect the 34 people who were killed died of smoke inhalation whose wife’s sister was on board the Conception with several other relatives took a long pause while he processed the news that all crew members were asleep at the time of the fire the captain at least ought to be held responsible.” did not respond to a request for comment Thursday accredited marine surveyor and chair of a National Fire Protection Assn said smoke alarms in the area where the fire started would have been key to preventing the tragedy The NTSB’s preliminary report mentions the presence of two locally sounding smoke detectors in the boat’s bunk room The report doesn’t specify whether they were working or whetherthere were detectors in other parts of the boat “There’s so much left to chance when you depend on a roving watchman,” McDevitt said of a smoke alarm that would have even alerted the roving watchman right away if he wasn’t up and awake.” The NTSB has released its preliminary report into the Conception boat fire disaster The NTSB report provides the most clear narrative yet about what happened aboard the vessel early Labor Day morning The report states that a crew member sleeping in the wheelhouse was awakened by a noise The crew members jumped onto the main deck — one man broke his leg in the process — and tried to access the salon and galley to get to the passengers out Two crew members and the captain swam to the stern opened the hatch to the engine room and saw no fire Access to the salon through the doors near the stern was blocked by fire so they launched a small skiff and picked up the remaining two crew members in the water While investigators have not determined what caused the fire aboard the 75-foot vessel, there have been suggestions that it may have erupted at a charging station used by passengers for phones and other electronics in the galley or because of some lithium battery malfunction. Douglas Schwartz, an attorney representing Truth Aquatics, the owners of the Conception said that based on “current evidence and testimonials,” he does not believe the fire was caused by the operator He said crew members “acted heroically and did all in their power to try and save the lives of the passengers and their fellow crew member.” Schwartz disputes the NTSB’s assertion that the entire crew was asleep when the fire broke out Schwartz told CNN he has “witness testimony that seems to contradict the notion that the entire crew was asleep.” The lawyer declined to answer The Times’ questions on the statement but he told the Associated Press that a crew member “checked on and around the galley area” around 2:30 a.m “We all hope and anticipate new regulations will come as a result of the investigation,” Schwartz said “We would ask whether safety agencies that have been aware of the dangers of lithium-ion batteries in other modes of transportation have considered applying this knowledge to the charter boating industry.” Certificate of inspection for the Conception On Wednesday, the Coast Guard issued a safety bulletin recommending that commercial boat operators nationwide review safety measures, make sure safety equipment is operational and reduce potential hazards from lithium batteries, power strips and extension cords. Officials are also investigating whether passengers received appropriate safety instructions aboard the vessel. The Times spoke to more than a dozen people who have recently been on Truth Aquatics boats. Although many remembered the crew as professional and conscientious of safety protocols, some said that the captain’s initial safety briefing was inadequate. The passengers of the Conception dive boat ended their second day in the waters off the California coast with a nighttime swim, exploring a lush, watery world populated with coral and kelp forests. The boat’s design has also come under scrutiny, particularly whether the the escape hatch located in the bunk room provided an adequate route for people to leave the boat during an emergency. From the bunk room, there were two ways out to the deck — a staircase on one side and the emergency hatch on the other. Both led to the galley area. Homendy told The Times last week that she was “taken aback” by the size of the emergency hatch — which measures roughly 2 feet wide — when she toured the Vision, a sister vessel that is similar in size and layout to the Conception. Investigators plan to examine current regulations regarding vessels similar to the Conception that were built the same year and conduct similar operations; check early-warning and smoke-detection and alarm systems; evaluate evacuation routes and staff training; and verify current company policies and procedures, according to the report. Mark Puente covered the Los Angeles Police Department for the Los Angeles Times from 2019-20 “This isn’t a day we wanted to wake up to for Labor Day and it’s a very tragic event,” said Coast Guard Capt “I think we should all be prepared to move into the worst outcome.” Five crew members were already awake when the fire erupted and jumped off the boat, which was 20 yards off shore of the north side of Santa Cruz Island near the Ventura County coast “Our hearts go out to the families of the victims of this terrible tragedy,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said “We understand the tremendous burden they are under right now.” Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach watchstanders overheard a mayday call of the boat on fire In the garbled emergency call “I can’t breathe,” the man frantically says × (()=>{const e=document.getElementById("yt-img-1ZNRH3Bq49c");e&&e.addEventListener("load",(t=>{t.target.naturalWidth<=120&&(e.parentNode.children[0].srcset=e.parentNode.children[1].srcset=e.src)}),{once:!0})})() The five crew members “You can imagine that of all the scenarios and to have all of a sudden a fire that spread very very rapidly — you couldn’t ask for a worse situation,” Brown said Shirley Hansen and her husband, Bob, were jarred awake about 3:30 a.m. by the sound of pounding on the side of their 60-foot fishing boat The crew had escaped the Conception by jumping into the ocean retrieving a dinghy and paddling 200 yards to the Hansens’ boat The crew was distraught, some wearing only underwear, she said. One man told the Hansens that his girlfriend was still below deck on the Conception. Another man cried, describing how they had celebrated three passengers’ birthdays hours earlier, including that of a 17-year-old girl who was on the diving trip with her parents. Shirley Hansen said she could see the Conception ablaze from her boat and said there was so much smoke that she had to use an inhaler As the Hansens handed out blankets and clothes to the crew two of the men got back into the dinghy to see if anyone else had jumped overboard “But they came back and there was no one that they found,” Shirley Hansen said at least three rescue vessels were at sea near the sunken dive boat located in a remote cove at the northernmost end of Santa Cruz Island In the shadow of Santa Cruz Island’s headlands and rocky fingers a small craft had raised a red-and-white striped flag indicating that there were divers in the water a Coast Guard cutter sliced through the water warding off all non-rescue boat traffic: “The captain has extended the security zone to 1 mile.” Kristy Finstad, 41, was helping to lead the Labor Day excursion on the Conception. Hours after the disaster, Finstad’s family had not heard from their daughter, a marine biologist who worked for the family company, Worldwide Diving Adventures. “They’ve been searching for a long time now,” said her brother, Brett Harmeling, 31. “She’s extremely strong-willed and very adventurous. If there was a 1% chance of her making it, she would have made it.” Names of those missing and dead are being withheld pending next-of-kin notifications. Finstad’s mother founded Worldwide Diving Adventures in 1972, and Finstad grew up with a love of the ocean and of marine life. She studied marine biology at UC Santa Cruz and held multiple jobs related to marine life and the ocean, including performing research dives for the Australian Institute of Marine Science and writing a restoration guidebook for the California Coastal Commission. “She has an extraordinary depth of knowledge,” Harmeling said. “Every time I’m on a dive trip with her, she goes above and beyond. She’ll go underwater and point out something, and then after the dive, she’ll explain exactly what it was and why it’s important.” Authorities have set up a family assistance center at Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara. A family information line has been opened at (833) 688-5551. Several charter operations run diving expeditions around the Channel Islands. The charters typically take off from Ventura and Santa Barbara Harbor for several days. The boat departed from its base in Santa Barbara Harbor on Saturday morning and was scheduled for a three-day trip. Truth Aquatics, the company that owns Conception, is a respected name in the diving world, running several boats off the Channel Islands. Owner Glen Fritzler won the California Scuba Service Award earlier this year for his pioneering work in the industry. According to California Diving News, Fritzler built the Conception in 1981 and it was a major part of his life and business. “Conception was California’s crown jewel of live-aboard dive boats. It’s also where Glen met the love of his life, Dana. On the couple’s first dive together they encountered a 17-foot great white shark, truly a memorable first dive-date experience,” Diving News reported. Fritzler told the paper his firm’s boats have hosted more than 450,000 divers and more than 1 million dives. The boat was regularly used for diving trips around the Channel Islands and was owned by Truth Aquatics, a major name in the world of charters. Truth Aquatics would not comment Monday morning. A person who answered the phone said they were waiting for official word from the Coast Guard and needed to keep their lines clear. Ralph Clevenger, a photographer who regularly takes pictures of expeditions for Truth Aquatics, has been on hundreds of diving trips with the company since the ‘90s. Jerry Boylan is usually the captain of the Conception, Clevenger said, although he doesn’t know if Boylan manned the vessel during the Labor Day trip. He noted that Boylan is a top-notch captain who has been with Truth Aquatics longer than anyone else, other than the company’s owner. “It’s a position where if you’re not good with people and your crew, and operating the boat, you just don’t last,” Clevenger said. Rochester said the vessel is inspected annually by the Coast Guard and has been in regulatory compliance. “We are working deliberately with the vessel owner operator, who is with us at this time, working on a plan to conduct further assistance for his vessel,” Rochester said. Fire on boat off Santa Cruz Island (Ventura County Fire Dept.) Community responds to tragedy Bruce Rausch, a veteran dive master in Orange County and a retired San Onofre nuclear design engineer, said he has been on diving trips aboard the Conception more than a dozen times. Before any guest begins a dive, Rausch said, the ship’s first captain completes an extensive safety briefing that covers the location of life jackets, deploying life boats, and the location of two bunk room exits, a ladder at the bow end and an escape hatch toward the stern. The briefing also discusses the alarms on board, as well as underwater alarms and notes the location of fire extinguishers. The safety briefing, Rausch said, is done within the galley at the site of the escape hatch, a roughly two-feet by two-feet square plank of wood with no lock or latch on it. Below, the rows of bunks hold a maximum of 46 people, some in single or double beds stacked in threes. Members of the tight-knit scuba diving community expressed grief over the tragedy on social media Captain and crew have always been exemplary and have kept us safe and returned us back to the dock,” according to a post from San Luis Obispo dive shop SLO Ocean Currents on Facebook on Monday morning “It is a humbling day and a reminder to make every day count.” Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village) said she had been planning to go to a Labor Day parade when she heard news of the boating accident And we’re hoping there could still be some survivors,” said Brownley after being briefed by the Coast Guard in Oxnard California Rescuers searched the waters off the Channel Islands as well as the Santa Cruz Island shore hoping to find survivors but have found only bodies Gov. Gavin Newsom also shared a statement on Twitter regarding the fire. “Our hearts are with the families and loved ones affected by this tragic incident. As we wait to hear more, we are eternally grateful for our heroic first responders that are on site — working to ensure every individual is found.” Times staff writers Mark Puente, Soumya Karlamangla, Matt Hamilton and Laura Newberry contributed to this report. Dakota Smith covers City Hall for the Los Angeles Times. She is part of the team that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news for reporting on a leaked audio recording that upended City Hall politics. She joined the newsroom in 2016 and previously covered City Hall for the Los Angeles Daily News. She is a graduate of Lewis & Clark College and lives in Los Angeles. Laura J. Nelson covers politics and campaign finance for the Los Angeles Times. Print The owner of the Conception dive boat that caught fire off the Channel Islands has sold the two remaining boats in the fleet amid a flurry of new lawsuits filed by the victims’ families Truth Aquatics was cited by the National Transportation Safety Board for poor oversight and a lack of a required roving night watch in the Labor Day 2019 deaths on the Conception The buyer of the two vessels is a newly formed company Coast Guard as being led by longtime adventurers in the oceans around the coastal islands The sale comes as several families of those killed off Santa Cruz Island filed wrongful-death lawsuits against Truth Aquatics and owner Glen Fritzler in Los Angeles County Superior Court Those suits follow on the heels of the Conception owner agreeing to pause litigation in federal court in which it sought to avoid paying any more than the value of the burned vessel under a steamship era law that protected boat owners said Truth Aquatics agreed to abate its federal litigation a move that allows the families to proceed in Superior Court with their lawsuits where a judge will decide whether Truth Aquatics can legally limit its liability to the value of the wreck could not be reached for comment for this article the company’s insurance policy limits were relatively small and that is part of the problem,” said Jennifer Fiore a San Francisco attorney with extensive maritime litigation experience who represents two of the families She said the law does not require more coverage Fiore said it was believed that the vessels were being sold to help pay for Fritzler’s legal defense Jerry Boylan is already facing federal criminal charges and pleaded not guilty last month to 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter; the criminal investigation remains open Fritzler’s lawyers are well-known criminal defense attorneys Hilary Potashner and Stephen Larson a former head federal public defender in Los Angeles and a former federal judge Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Kurt Fredrickson said Channel Islands Expeditions was the owner of Truth Aquatics’ remaining dive boats as of Dec Channel Islands Expeditions’ fleet operation officer said he and his partner acquired the vessels and plan to again operate them off the Channel Islands and elsewhere in California “We are making all the safety improvements in preparation and we’re working with the Coast Guard,” he said Fritzler and his family “are not involved in any way” in the newly formed company according to California secretary of state records was formed in November and led by Garrett Kababik who operates kayaking and other adventure trips to nearby islands He has previously operated Channel Island Outfitters for a decade and Wild Blue Adventurers the only financial tie to Truth Aquatics that still exists involves the boats’ berths at Sea Landing Truth Aquatics controls those berths and Channel Island Expeditions is paying it for their use on a scale that is partly based on the revenue generated by the vessels A new website for the firm notes that it is “employee and community owned” and includes images of the two dive boats and an existing vessel used for kayaking it states it employs highly trained and qualified captains crew and guides and pays them living wages It highlights that it deploys a safety management system with rigorous maintenance schedules a lack of an adequate safety management system was among the NTSB’s criticisms of Truth Aquatics Fiore said that without a judgment or court order there was nothing stopping the sale of the vessels even though the owners have made changes to the vessels the families are very distrusting of Fritzler and his team they FedEx overnight the limitation of liability action within days of the tragedy to all the families.” Fritzler in January agreed to pause his federal litigation and that required all claims to be filed in a Los Angeles federal court The victims’ families say they want the Truth Aquatics owner to pay for his actions “We want Glen Fritzler held accountable,” said Kathleen McIlvain whose husband and daughter-in-law are plaintiffs in the litigation “But I am glad Truth Aquatics and Fritzler aren’t running these boats anymore.” Print One of the crew members aboard the dive boat Conception hadn’t been asleep long when a noise jolted him awake He swung open the door of the wheelhouse — the top level of the 75-foot boat located just above the galley — and was greeted by flames a fishing boat anchored nearby off Santa Cruz Island the crew member who had been jolted awake shook as he recounted the horrific story to Grape Escape owner Shirley Hansen where cellphones and cameras had been plugged in to charge overnight “The impression I got was that the fire was already too big to do anything,” Hansen said in an interview Wednesday The concern about the charging station in the galley is one possibility The Conception was one of three dive boats operated out of Santa Barbara Harbor by Truth Aquatics Inc., a long-established operation founded by Hauser in 1974 and now owned by Glen Fritzler. Lack of escape routes in boat fire becomes focus as investigation intensifies The diesel-powered boat had three decks: the wheelhouse on top the main dive deck in the middle and the bunk room on the bottom The sleeping area had 20 single bunks and 13 doubles the bunks were occupied by 33 passengers and one crew member At the bow end of the room was a staircase that led up to the galley area an escape hatch located above one of the bunks led to a mess area next to the galley — and just a few feet from the large Officials said Tuesday that both exits from the bunk area were blocked by fire. Hauser said passengers should not have been impeded by flames — if they had been able to get to the escape hatch from the bunk room. “When you come out of the escape hatch, you look straight out to the main deck — you’re within 3 or 4 feet of the main deck. All you have to do is lurch forward,” Hauser said. “I don’t think those people ever had a chance to get out of their bunks.” Santa Barbara resident Britany Martin and son Theo, 2, place flowers at a memorial to boat fire victims in Santa Barbara Harbor. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) Boat fires often start in engine compartments, where fuel ignition sources can combine. Other such fires have been traced to electrical sources, such as wiring harnesses or batteries, or to external causes such as fires in marinas or storage facilities. Hauser said the rapid spread of fire caused by a lithium battery could explain why no one got out. Navy and others in the dive industry also have expressed concerns about lithium batteries which in various sizes are used to power everything from automobiles to hoverboards “Lithium cells and batteries offer many advantages compared to other power sources,” U.S. Navy guidelines state. “However, they are high-energy devices and shall be considered hazardous at all times. “ Mike Strong, a Phoenix-area PADI master dive instructor, said, “We’ve all seen these batteries go,” alluding to reports of cellphones, e-cigarettes and lithium car batteries catching fire. “They’re a major safety issue,” he said, noting that he charges his batteries in a fireproof container. And yet, on some boats, people have their camera and dive equipment charging at outlets in bunk rooms, in the galley or in the salon, he said. Authorities said they got word of the boat fire off Santa Cruz Island in Southern California from a mayday call around 3:30 a.m “Most dive boats now require you to charge them externally on the deck,” Strong said “There are fewer combustibles out there and more firefighting equipment.” Dale Sheckler, a longtime diver who’s been on the Conception roughly 100 times, said there was a main charging station in the galley. A number of AC power outlets — the power strips one might have at home — are available for charging cellphones, batteries for strobes, underwater lighting and laptops. The main charging station would be “directly above the bunk bed areas,” he said. There are conflicting account about whether power outlets were available in the sleeping quarters. Sheckler said he thought there were some there and in the restroom area. But he recalls the galley area as the main charging station. “You can plug in overnight,” he said. “Sometimes with a lot of people on board, there’d be competition for space.” a bartender and a middle school teacher — were celebrating their father’s birthday with a Labor Day diving trip a physician who’s led seven trips on the Conception over the last 20 years said power outlets were located every few feet along a ledge that lined the galley He did not recall outlets in the sleeping quarters “There were never any wires haphazardly hanging out,” Lazzareschi said of the outlets said there were electrical outlets in the bunk room where he fears the blaze started and spread rapidly Long since retired, Hauser, 75, said he had not yet spoken with Fritzler, his former partner and Truth Aquatics’ current owner, and had no inside information on the fire. But even though he has been out of the business for years, Hauser said, he is distraught by the Labor Day catastrophe on the Conception. “I’m devastated,” Hauser said. “My God, we did this so people could go out and have fun and dive — not die. Especially in that magnitude. It’s unbelievable.” Times staff writer Laura Newberry contributed to this report. Kim Christensen is a former investigative reporter on the Los Angeles Times’ projects team. He has more than 30 years of experience in newspapers, starting with the Dayton Daily News in his hometown in Ohio. He has shared two Pulitzer Prizes, at the Oregonian in 2001 and at the Orange County Register in 1996, for investigations of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and of fertility fraud at UC Irvine. He joined The Times in 2005 and left in 2022. Susanne Rust is an award-winning investigative reporter specializing in environmental issues. She is based in the Bay Area. Colleen Shalby is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She has covered education, the pandemic, the vaccine rollout and breaking news throughout California. She was part of the team that was a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist for coverage of a dive-boat fire off the Santa Barbara coast. Shalby grew up in Southern California and graduated from George Washington University. She previously worked for PBS NewsHour and joined The Times in 2015. including several families celebrating birthdays united by their love of the ocean and their spirit of exploration Print 1 The passengers of the Conception dive boat ended their second day in the waters off the California coast with a nighttime swim watery world populated with coral and kelp forests the passengers on the 75-foot charter boat went below deck retiring to narrow wooden bunk beds covered with green curtains When a massive fire broke out on board around 3 a.m., quickly engulfing the boat, five crew members who were above deck escaped by jumping overboard The passengers and one crew member who were below deck were trapped with the only two exits apparently blocked by flames The catastrophe killed 34 people officials said they had recovered all but one body The victims most probably died of smoke inhalation Santa Barbara County officials have publicly identified nine people friends and employers have confirmed the deaths of 23 others An effort to confirm the identity of the victims through a DNA analysis tool has required taking cheek swab samples from family members as far away as Japan and Singapore The victims of the Conception boat fire were athletes exploring and shaping the world as marine biologists All were united by their love of adventure and spirit of exploration he enrolled in an enology program at a community college in northern Arizona’s Verde Valley wine region He made the 1½-hour drive to attend Yavapai College and sometimes sleeping overnight in his Ford F-150 he joked that he was “sleeping in a van down by the river,” a reference to a classic Chris Farley sketch on “Saturday Night Live.” friendly classmate who got along with everyone keeping spirits up during the early mornings of hard physical work that comes with running a vineyard the director of enology and viticulture at the Southwest Wine Center Baltz put corks over his eyes and ran through the cellar “He’s one of those people who was an absolute pleasure to know,” Pierce said worked as an engineer for a semiconductor company and had studied electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign a nontraditional campus where the average student age is 48 He also gave more than $5,000 to help renovate an old racquetball court into a winemaking center The school had expected Baltz on campus Tuesday night to make a presentation on wines from Washington The instructor already had his presentation in hand lived in the Ahwatukee Foothills in southern Phoenix and loved to explore the world together Their diving trips had taken them to Micronesia he had shared dozens of videos of mountain biking skiing and diving expeditions in the Caribbean worked as a nutritionist at an endocrinology practice She was encouraging and enthusiastic as she coached people on how to eat better and lose weight and regaled her patients with travel stories and funny -- someone that you wanted to spend time with.” After the dive trip to the Channel Islands Beitzinger planned to go to Komodo in Indonesia They had also gone swimming with stingrays on Socorro Island in Mexico hiked to Machu Picchu and white-water rafted in the Grand Canyon you could just read the joy on their faces,” Reynolds said Scott Chan shared his love of scuba diving with his daughter who often accompanied him on expeditions in the Channel Islands One photo shared by their family showed father and daughter grinning next to a Christmas tree “You don’t expect to have a child that dies before you,” said Vicki Moore, Kendra’s mother and Scott’s partner, in an interview with KTVU-TV of Oakland graduated from Stanford and worked in Silicon Valley as an electrical engineer for two decades Then he started a second career as a high school teacher in the Bay Area bringing “experience from research laboratories and high-performance automotive industries into the classroom,” he wrote in his LinkedIn profile Scott’s students “knew him to be an innovative and inspiring teacher who developed a passion for physics among his students,” said Brian Killgore a spokesman for the Fremont Unified School District so proud of her and all that she was doing,” Moore said “She was absolutely an amazing young woman.” In a video produced by the agency last year for Women’s History Month Kendra said she grew up diving in the Channel Islands with her father She described her love for the marine world including watching “all the tiny little creatures come alive” on rocks and kelp holdfasts You don’t have to be a biologist on paper to be a scientist in real life.” Justin Dignam’s love of the water dated back decades He was a four-year varsity swimmer and water polo player in college coached the men’s water polo teams at Wesleyan University and Iona College and continued to compete in water polo tournaments into his 50s Dignam, 58, was the founder and chief executive of Big Fish Employer Services, a payroll company in Placentia. The company’s president said in an email that the staff was “shocked and horrified” at his death. Dignam founded the company out of his house in Anaheim Hills in 2003, according to a story last year in the California Business Journal. USA Water Polo’s chief executive, Christopher Ramsey, said in a statement that Dignam was a familiar face, appearing at golf tournaments, Hall of Fame inductions and other events. This July, Dignam passed out medals at the Junior Olympics in Irvine, he said, “savoring the smiles and encouraging everyone to give it their all — just like he did.” Tia Salika-Adamic, a high school student from Santa Cruz, boarded the Conception with her close friend Berenice Felipe and her parents — Steve Salika and Diana Adamic — to celebrate her 17th birthday. Steve, 55, worked at Apple Inc. for three decades and met Adamic there, said Deirdre O’Brien, the company’s senior vice president of retail and people. She said his “energy and enthusiasm touched so many people across our company throughout his career.” From left, Diana Adamic, Berenice Felipa, Steve Salika and Tia Salika-Adamic enjoying a dive during a 2018 Thanksgiving vacation trip off the coast of Venezuela. (Margo Peyton/Associated Press) When Jennifer Morales started working at Apple in 2001, she passed by Steve’s office frequently. She recalled him as a big, burly guy who was always willing to help. Steve worked on quality assurance for major projects, she said, including the iPad and the first Apple TV. “He had this crazy pouf of hair, and these enormous Robert Irvine biceps and these round glasses,” she said. “He had such patience, and he had this great big huge booming laugh. If you could make him laugh, that was the extra payoff.” The family loved diving, traveling to Fiji and the Caribbean Netherlands to explore reefs and other marine life. They encouraged their daughter’s love of the ocean from an early age, taking her on excursions to learn how to snorkel and dive. Adamic, 60, volunteered at the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter, where she was remembered as compassionate, honest and inclusive. She worked to find resolutions among the most difficult of relationships, said Jen Walker, a former humane educator at the animal shelter, in a statement. “She was an ally to all living things — orphan kittens, wild birds, youth volunteers — and a champion for the natural world around us,” Walker said. The two girls attended Pacific Collegiate, a Santa Cruz charter school for students in seventh through 12th grades, according to a letter sent to parents. Berenice had previously been honored by the school for her work in plant science, according to the school’s Facebook page. Tia and Berenice both volunteered at the animal shelter, too, helping to care for foster kittens and keeping homeless cats and dogs company, Walker said. She said that Berenice’s “calm and easy-going manner was a true gift that she shared with us.” A commercial diving boat caught fire near the shoreline of Santa Cruz Island, Calif., early Monday. Many aboard the boat were believed to be sleeping below deck when the fire broke out in the pre-dawn hours. Lisa Fiedler worked as a hairdresser in Mill Valley in the Bay Area. In her free time, she pursued her passion for nature photography, traveling extensively in the West and to Holland, China, Tibet and Guatemala. “Everybody loved her,” Fiedler’s mother, Nancy Fiedler, said in an interview with KGO-TV. “She was a kind, gentle person. She loved nature.” Her photos captured the peace and beauty of nature, including crisp images of hummingbirds in flight, dewdrops clinging to spiderwebs, and sunsets across stunning mountain ranges. “Nature is ever changing and always slightly different, begging to be eternally appreciated,” Fiedler wrote on her website. Last year, Fiedler, 52, traveled to Cozumel, Mexico, with Worldwide Diving Adventures, the same company that led the Labor Day weekend excursion on the Conception. She wrote on Facebook about the joy of finishing her deepest scuba dive ever in an underwater cave formation called Devil’s Throat. “Petting an octopus on a night dive was another highlight,” she wrote. “Wish I could stay here forever.” Kristy Finstad first swam the waters of California’s Channel Islands as a toddler, tucked under her father’s arm. The 41-year-old marine biologist had since returned hundreds of times to the area’s swaying kelp forests and arrays of coral. On Aug. 30, Finstad boarded the Conception to help lead an expedition for her family’s scuba diving company. After fire broke early Monday morning, engulfing and sinking the 75-foot vessel, Finstad was among those unaccounted for. “She’s extremely strong-willed and very adventurous,” said her brother, Brett Harmeling, 31. “If there was a 1% chance of her making it, she would have made it.” Finstad had worked as a research diver for the Australian Institute of Marine Science and wrote a restoration guidebook for the California Coastal Commission. She had dived in the area near Santa Cruz Island often, and the trip was one of the company’s most popular, Harmeling said. “She has an extraordinary depth of knowledge,” Harmeling said. “She has a passion for the Earth, and a love for marine life.” Finstad and her husband recently had returned from a multiyear sailing trip through the Pacific. In a blog on the company’s website, she chronicled the beauty and monotony of life on the ocean, “her colors changing, her energy moody with moon tide currents, thundering waves and glassy reflection.” “What were we doing with our lives?” Finstad wrote before they embarked. “Dragging your feet is no way to climb a mountain; holding your breath is no way to dive.” Two weeks ago, Adrian Dahood-Fritz celebrated her 40th birthday with a marine-themed cake covered in white chocolate sea stars. Her colleagues at the California Ocean Protection Council took her out for shaved ice cream at a place with “penguin” in its name, the bird she was known to love after years working in Antarctica. Dahood-Fritz and her husband, Andrew Fritz, a photographer, had recently moved from Texas to Sacramento so Dahood-Fritz could join California’s efforts to manage marine protected areas. She quickly developed a reputation as smart, unpretentious and passionate, said Mark Gold, the organization’s executive director. Dahood-Fritz previously worked for the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In a statement, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Dahood-Fritz “embodied marine conservation” and led the state’s efforts to manage California’s network of marine protected areas. Josh Baker, a longtime friend of Fritz’s, said the couple had a “meteor” impact on Austin’s photography community, a race car community in Houston, an international diving community. His two young sons knew Fritz as “Uncle Andrew,” he said. “There was no escaping their impact,” he said. “If they were in your lives, they were in your lives.” The two friends had started a photography business together four years ago. Fritz, 40, would shoot portraits, weddings and nature — his passion. He often put his computer science degree to use, managing their website, and once built a photography time-lapse application. “He was a doer and a hands-on constructor,” Baker said. Apple engineer Dan Garcia was on the Conception with his girlfriend, Yulia Krashennaya, his aunt said. She described him as “a gifted engineer” who loved scuba diving and was a loving partner, son, brother and friend. Garcia, 46, a Berkeley resident, was “as passionate about his job at Apple as he was about diving,” Apple’s O’Brien said. California Boat Fire: There is growing focus on the limited escape route on the boat where 34 died in the worst maritime disaster in modern California history Allie Kurtz was one of six crew members on the Conception for the Labor Day trip The five other employees survived by jumping off the boat and paddling in a dinghy to a nearby fishing boat But Kurtz was below deck when the fire broke out “She had the biggest heart,” her sister Olivia told reporters this week as her family waited for news on shore graduated from a performing arts high school in Cincinnati Before pursuing her love of diving full time Kurtz worked at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles on the creative advertising team working on films including “Mission: Impossible,” a company representative said and lived her life on her terms,” said her father “The only sense of comfort right now is knowing she passed doing what she loved.” He added in tribute to his daughter: “I will always love you and will miss you forever scuba diving and any other activity that brought her closer to California’s majestic mountains and beaches Lin was a partner at Acorn Summit Ventures a private equity and venture capital firm in the Bay Area where she focused on artificial intelligence She had previously worked as an engineer and program manager at Apple Lin grew up in Beijing and attended Tsinghua University where she was the captain of the women’s soccer team She moved to the United States to attend Brown University where she earned a master’s degree in computer science was an active member of Chinese social groups in Silicon Valley and a strong advocate for women in technology “Her generosity and charisma made her many friends who remember and dearly miss her,” her family said funny; her curiosity and passion have impacted and inspired many whom she came into contact with throughout her life.” Santa Monica resident Charles “Chuck” McIlvain was a visual effects designer who had worked at Netflix He was known for his work on such movies as “Watchmen,” “Spider-Man” and “Green Lantern.” He was a “radiant bright light in many peoples’ lives,” said Culver City Councilman Alex Fisch who had been his friend since they shared the same dorm at UC Berkeley was “someone who people cherished every moment with,” he said McIlvain loved mountain biking and snowboarding McIlvain had gone diving on the Conception with Marybeth Guiney who lived in his condo building in Santa Monica was a sales director who was passionate about marine life and ocean conservation She previously worked for the New England Patriots Friend Jay Wilson, who had gone diving with Guiney on the Conception and other boats, said in an interview with the Daily Breeze that she was a funny, unorthodox person who sometimes wore red high-top sneakers inside her fins. “The best part about diving other than going down and being underwater is the people you meet,” Wilson said. Guiney, he said, was “just living life to the very fullest.” Caroline “Carrie” McLaughlin and Kristian Takvam worked at Brilliant, a website that creates interactive science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses. Both “brought immense passion, talent, leadership, and warmth” to their work, the company’s chief executive, Sue Khim, wrote in a statement. Takvam, the company’s vice president of engineering, grew up in Austin, Texas, and knew by age 6 that he wanted to be a physicist, his sister Katrina Takvam said. He studied physics at the University of Texas at Dallas and met his wife in that city three years later. The couple often shared “brainiac banter,” she said, but stayed down-to-earth and thoughtful. Takvam, 34, loved cave diving, his sister said, and “felt more at home in the water than on the land.” He met up with his college friends from across the country once or twice a year to explore underwater worlds together. McLaughlin, 35, a senior software engineer, graduated from UC San Diego in 2005. On her Instagram page, she described herself as a “painter of living beings,” displaying work that included watercolor portraits, paintings of nature and ceramics. McLaughlin wrote on her blog that she had recently started taking a portraiture class at a community college. Kaustubh Nirmal and Sanjeeri Deopujari, who married 2½ years ago, were “the perfect couple,” said Nirmal’s cousin, Rajul Sharma. “He found a soulmate in Sanjeeri,” Sharma said in an email, recalling their endearing and infectious smiles. “Their love for each other was apparent even without them speaking about it.” Sharma said he had known Nirmal since the day he was born. An avid animal lover, Nirmal was sensitive and polite, he said, never wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings. The couple lived in greater New York City, where Nimral worked in finance and Deopujari was a dentist. Nirmal grew up in Jaipur, and Deopujari was from Nagpur in central India, the Times of India reported. “God took them away from us untimely and unfairly, but even he didn’t have the heart to separate them in death,” he said. tightknit diving community in Southern California Many have formed friendships bound by a passion for ocean exploring the Labor Day weekend scuba diving trip to was supposed to be a celebration at sea Nicole and Evan Quitasol — set out Saturday with their father The family was celebrating Michael’s 62nd birthday with a three-day excursion that included dives in the kelp forests and I’m not just saying that because they’re family,” said their stepfather “The way they interacted with anyone they ever came across was a nurse who worked in the emergency department of a Stockton-area hospital Sison was a nurse practitioner at Kaiser Permanente Central Valley worked as a bartender in a lounge in Coronado which allowed her to live near her beloved ocean was a science teacher at Sierra Middle School in Stockton and was “wonderful with kids,” Rosas said She had played roller derby with the Port City Roller Girls in Stockton where she skated under the name Hermione Danger Angela was the maid of honor at the wedding of another sister Sunil Singh Sandhu still called his family in Singapore every week and visited his father and two sisters at least once a year he loved to eat barbecued stingray at one of Singapore’s ubiquitous open-air food centers “I never had to worry about my son,” his father, Soji Singh, told the New Paper in Singapore The only thing that I worried about was him not being married.” earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University and worked as a scientist at a Palo Alto research company picking up the sport two months before his death “I didn’t know that he was going for another trip,” Singh said “I had been trying to persuade him to come back to Singapore.” Strom worked for a decade as a staff physician at the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an associate professor at the University of Tennessee’s health science center His work and teaching encompassed pathology and lab medicine service He also researched the kinetics of platelet turnover was a staff physician at the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center Strom’s “exceptional service to veterans as a staff physician is a testament to the type of person that he was,” medical center director David K Strom received his medical degree from the University of Chicago in addition to a doctorate in biochemistry a bachelor of science degree in human biology and a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry Wei Tan boarded the Conception because she had moved to Santa Barbara just four months earlier and wanted to explore her new home an island on the east coast of Malaysia known for its coral Tan graduated from UC Berkeley in May with a master’s in engineering and attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate She had recently taken a job as a data scientist at Evidation Health “Our hearts are broken,” said Christine Lemke “Her smile lit up the world and she’ll be sorely missed.” was excited to buy new furniture for her Goleta apartment Their parents had promised to visit and check out the apartment over Christmas saw beautiful coral formations and chased some sea turtles before settling down to sleep the night of the fire knowing Wei “was doing something she loved in the last few moments of her life.” On Earth Day and at the Santa Cruz County Fair Vaidehi Williams — who went by Vai — was a familiar sight wearing a bright blue water droplet costume as she taught the public about water conservation and recycling Colleagues at the Soquel Creek Water District in Santa Cruz recalled Williams “May we always remember her infectious smile and adventurous spirit,” employee Melanie Mow Schumacher said in a statement “Vai will forever be our ‘Water Princess.’” In a fundraiser for Williams’ husband and two children friends wrote that she had “touched so many people from so many walks of life Anyone who has spent just a little time with her has been enchanted by her energy and felt the instant warmth of her friendship.” California Laura J. Nelson Follow Us thrown on in the dark as flames raced toward them Two were interlocked so tightly they had to be pried apart They died because their captain failed them, prosecutors told a jury Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, arguing that Jerry Boylan was guilty of manslaughter if his negligence caused even one of the 34 deaths aboard his ship over Labor Day weekend in 2019 Brian Faerstein told jurors in his closing argument Ignoring “basic rules of prudent seamanship” and the Certificate of Inspection requirements hanging in his own wheelhouse, prosecutors said, Boylan failed to order a roving night watch as people slept in a windowless bunk room below deck. It amounted to “a roll of the dice every night that his passengers went to sleep ... in the remote and isolated waters of the Pacific Ocean,” Faerstein said. Prosecutors say Jerry Boylan was negligent when he failed to institute a roving night watch or conduct proper fire drills before the fire that killed 34 Boylan had been a boat captain for 34 years and should have known the danger of fire and a roving night watch would have spotted the blaze before it raged out of control before dawn on Sept while the Conception was anchored off Santa Cruz Island Boylan also neglected to train his inexperienced crew in fire safety giving only perfunctory instruction on where equipment was located and when he woke up to find the fire spreading on his boat The Conception had two 50-foot-long fire hoses that could pump water into the boat from the ocean Prosecutors said galley hand Michael Kohls and twice ran right by a hose during the fire “You literally had the Pacific Ocean as your reservoir if you’re using these hoses,” Faerstein said “He had an opportunity to take that fire hose out.” Boylan called in a mayday before jumping overboard, actions that Faerstein characterized as “tantamount to giving up,” faulting Boylan for not using the public address system to alert passengers that there was a fire, perhaps giving them a chance to save themselves. “These people were not a lost cause,” Faerstein said. “Smoke was coming in, but they still had a chance.” Because safety training was so slipshod, Faerstein said, chaos ensued among crew when the fire spread through the boat. “There was no muscle memory. There was no automatic response. There was panic,” he said. “Having no training, they all went their own way — every man for himself.” Prosecutors pointed to the account of crew member Ryan Sims, who testified that he approached Boylan about safety procedures on the day before the fatal fire, and that Boylan rebuffed him with a chuckle. “He said, ‘When we get to it, Ryan,’” Faerstein said. “That’s how he felt about safety procedures.” In her closing argument to jurors Friday, one of Boylan’s attorneys, Georgina Wakefield, disputed that the chuckle suggested Boylan’s indifference to his passengers’ safety. “I don’t think a chuckle is nefarious,” Wakefield said. “You can interpret it however you want, but I don’t think it means anything.” Wakefield said her client was not the coward the government painted him as, and that when he woke up, the encroaching flames were already 15 feet tall, confronting him with “an impossible situation.” She said Boylan had done things “the Fritzler way” for decades, referring to boat owner Glen Fritzler, who did not require a roving night watch. “Jerry cared. ... He could have done better,” Wakefield said. “There absolutely should have been a roving patrol.” But he did not know he was endangering people’s lives, she said. “He didn’t know he should have done anything differently.” The fire was a tragedy but not the fault of a man “making a day wage at 66 years old.” Wakefield zeroed in on the 39 minutes between the time the last Conception crew member went to sleep, 2:35 a.m., and the time Boylan woke up and called in the mayday, 3:14 a.m. The fire started and became “an unstoppable inferno” during that interval, she said, suggesting that a roving patrol might not have helped. “A roving patrol that walks around once every hour would not have changed what happened here,” Wakefield said. By condemning Boylan’s behavior, the government was implying “that Jerry should have stayed on the boat, and he should have died,” Wakefield said. If he had, she said, prosecutors would have looked for someone else to blame. Families of the Conception victims have filled the courtroom in downtown Los Angeles during the eight-day trial, the testimony punctuated by the sound of their stifled weeping. For the families, one of the hardest pieces of evidence to bear was the 24-second video taken from the iPhone of Patricia Ann Beitzinger, an Arizona woman who died on the boat. She took the video at 3:17 a.m., three minutes after Boylan’s mayday call. The video, played early in the trial and again Friday, shows the dark outlines of people trapped in the bunk room as the fire approaches. The voices are muffled and difficult to hear, but prosecutors supplied a transcript to jurors: The jury will begin deliberating Boylan’s fate Monday morning. He could face 10 years in prison if convicted. Architect Danny Pearl of L’OEUF Architects took me to see the House in Four Fields in the winter With project manager Simon Jones at the wheel we turned off the highway about two hours north of Montreal near the resort town of Mont Tremblant The famous ski hills were veiled behind clouds; the namesake fields were deep in snow that also burdened the trees lining the lazy oxbows of the Rivière Rouge The house came slowly into view as a scrim of colours suspended in the landscape: the grey of recuperated cedar boards used as vertical cladding recalling the weathered planks of an old barn; the variegated blues and browns of a low wall made from mer de Champlain stone; the Payne’s grey of the sky; the blues and greens shaping stands of conifers a young orchard hid under scratchy burlap protection as if a final burst of colour sat coiled waiting for spring Isn’t this exactly what a modern house in the country is supposed to look like Pearl designed this 3,720-square-foot house for Stephen and Claudine Bronfman Stephen Bronfman is a foodie and an environmental activist so the house surveys a small domain dedicated to organic agriculture The land forms an unusual scale of rural living bigger than a garden plot but not quite a full-fledged farm The same emphasis on local products that defines contemporary approaches to food characterizes the architecture of the house for it neither frames views—the cinematic picture box—nor does it offer a promenade architecturale the design aspires to the merging of inside and out we admire in classic houses such as Fallingwater a juxtaposition continued in recent Canadian examples from the likes of Pierre Thibault It is a stunning reminder that Modernist design can work better in the countryside than in the city Low-tech passive strategies combine with high-tech engineering and products in a “complex” mix—Pearl’s term—mastered by a calm The design features reclaimed building materials and is built targeting the Passivhaus standard The idea is to make the house so airtight (0.6 ACH at 50 pa) that very little air gets in or out except through the air exchange system The prefabricated walls and roof are superinsulated and careful construction details eliminate all thermal bridges The architects also incorporated triple-glazed windows manufactured in Germany and programmable blinds The extra capital cost of components and systems should be offset by energy savings The principal exception to the Passivhaus standard occurs because of the kitchen fan which Pearl decided to vent to the exterior “Stephen and Claudine entertain and cook a lot,” says Pearl “So we preferred to skip the certification and give the clients a house that suits them.” the house has the simplicity of a child’s drawing Matthieu Schleiss and Morgan Carter worked with engineer Frédéric Génest to conceive minimal near-invisible construction details such as a concealed gutter and thin metal window surrounds One reason for this simplicity is that the Passivhaus program asks designers to use software to achieve a low surface-area-to-volume configuration and to assure optimal passive ventilation and solar gain throughout the four seasons from careful observation of the nearby rural vernacular of barns and sheds The architects designed two minimal sheds as well one for gardening and one for a photogenic herd of longhaired Highland cattle The animals are kept from the house by a stone ha-ha designed by landscape architects NIP paysage there is no swimming pool—although the scheme that won a 2012 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence featured one A stone wall anchors the house’s efficient and open interior floor plan The northern edge of the house aligns with an existing post-and-wire fence A new wooden breezeway marks the southern edge and on the other providing an edge for a series of activities inside and out There’s a carport (the client agreed to dispense with a garage) A series of sliding doors leads across the breezeway to a screened porch and a greenhouse The ground floor also contains a living room and a double-height dining area The basement hides laundry machines and extra refrigerators (they do like to entertain!) as well as the mechanical room so a chimney stack joins a high-efficiency living-room fireplace with a second one in the master bedroom Carter worked with the Bronfman’s interior designer Cynthia Adelson of Adelson Design to create furniture and built-in millwork made from reclaimed red oak throughout A post-and-beam structure designed with consultants Jan Vrana and Jean-Marc Weill holds up the house The timber pieces share the same profile: about six inches square because the structure is made from pitted and cracked reclaimed wood full of holes The posts are kept inches away from the thick walls which means that—unusually for Quebec—it is a domestic environment filled with columns Many people in Quebec live in post-and-beam loft buildings; however the posts are usually embedded in structural walls The reclaimed wood eloquently speaks of the fragility of age The effect is most pronounced on the east façade where a sleek glass corner reveals a pitted and cracked red oak post It is difficult to understand exactly how the Bronfmans will live here over long periods of time they have four children who here must share one bedroom filled with bunk beds and ladders the family will have to learn small but important new routines as the building’s “complex” environmental systems are affected by the casual actions of everyday life: opening windows Pearl’s team has installed a set of sensors that will collect data on the house’s operation over the next year or so the problem this winter has been how to cool down the house He argues that low energy consumption can be a goal for all kinds of housing A project like this gives his firm tools that can be used in broader environmental and social movements L’OEUF has several projects that move towards Passivhaus standards including subsidized urban community housing the House in Four Fields presents a new kind of commission 21st-century hybrid retreat for entertaining and farming I wonder if the Bronfmans could be persuaded to rent out the home to the combination of foodie and design addict that the house is meant to inspire Or another thought: since Stephen Bronfman is a serious collector of contemporary art could the house be deployed as a stunning venue for themed exhibitions but the closest parallels to the project are the rental retreats commissioned by Alain de Botton in Britain under the Living Architecture program This is good architecture built with good intentions is Assistant Professor at the McGill University School of Architecture Client Stephen and Claudine Bronfman | Architect Team Danny Pearl Chantal Cornu  |  Landscape NIP paysage | Structural Jan Vrana and Jean-Marc Weill | Mechanical/Electrical Pageau Morel et associés inc | Interiors Adelson Design  | Organic Farming Runaway Creek Farm | Project Manager/Contractor Omnia Technologies inc | Passivhaus  Malcolm Isaacs | Post-and-Beam Structure Jim Iredale | Roofing and Metalwork Verdun Roofing | Lighting  Lightemotion | Civil Marchand Houle et associés | Area 3,720 ft2 | Budget Withheld | Completion July 2014 Thomas Balsley Associates and Scott Torrance Landscape Architect, Inc. selected to Design Aitken Place Park on Toronto’s Inner Harbour GE Monogram opens Canadian luxury showroom designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects Artists interested in participating are being asked to send a image list, current CV /artist statement, and 4 to 6 jpegs to [email protected] there were two ways out in case of emergency — up a curved stairway at the front of the cabin or through an escape hatch in the ceiling over bunks at the rear 1/39 The burned hulk of the Conception is brought to the surface by a salvage team off Santa Cruz Island.  (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times) 2/39 The burned hulk of the Conception is brought to the surface by a salvage team off Santa Cruz Island.  (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times) 3/39 A mourner pays her respects at a memorial made up of scuba tanks during the vigil at Chase Palm Park on Friday night   (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 4/39 Mourners gather for a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening honoring the victims of the Conception boat fire that broke out off Santa Cruz Island before dawn Monday and claimed 34 lives.  (Luis Sinco) 5/39 Glen Fritzler co-owner of Truth Aquatics and the dive boat Conception consoles an attendee during a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening.  (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times) 6/39 Scuba diver Julia Donath joins mourners for a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening to honor the 34 victims that died in the Conception boat fire   (Luis Sinco) 7/39 Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown presents a wreath during the vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening homor the 34 victims of the Conception boat fire Coast Guard) 13/39 The search area where divers were looking through the sunken wreckage of the Conception is outlined.  (KABC-TV) 14/39 Divers and support crews from many agencies work the scene of the dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island.  (Santa Barbara County) 15/39 The owners of Truth Aquatics and the dive boat Conception   (KEYT-TV) 16/39 Surfer Tim DeVries of Santa Barbara views the “Lost at Sea Memorial” at the end of the Santa Barbara Harbor jetty Thursday morning The memorial reads “In memory of our loved ones whose lives and destinies have been claimed by the sea.”   (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 17/39 Members of the FBI dive team view a growing memorial prior to departing Thursday morning to the site of the dive boat tragedy   (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 18/39 People pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in Santa Barbara for victims of the deadly dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 19/39 CJ Andelman who has become a scuba diver along with her twin sister plays her harp Wednesday morning during the memorial at Santa Barbara Harbor.  (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 20/39 Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board with other NTSB and Coast Guard officials on Santa Barbara Harbor aboard Vision the sister ship to Conception.  (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 21/39 Santa Barbara resident Britany Martin lets her son Theo place flowers at a growing memorial to the fire victims at Santa Barbara Harbor.  (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 22/39 FBI dive team members prepare to leave Santa Barbara Harbor on Wednesday morning and head to the site of the fire   (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) 23/39 A memorial is growing at Santa Barbara Harbor where the dive boat Conception was based.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 24/39 Olivia sister of a female crew member thought to have died in the boat fire who placed flowers at Santa Barbara Harbor.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 25/39 Search and rescue personnel remove one of more than a dozen body bags in Santa Barbara Harbor after the Conception diving boat caught fire early Monday.  (Patrick T Fallon / For The Times) 26/39 After hanging a dive flag in memory of the victims who said he had dived off the Conception as a kid at Santa Barbara Harbor near where the Conception departed.  (Patrick T Fallon / For The Times) 27/39 Orlando Aldana places candles at a makeshift memorial at Sea Landing in the Santa Barbara Harbor.  (Patrick T Fallon / For The Times) 28/39 At Santa Barbara Harbor “It’s a very sad moment for California,” he said.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 29/39 Rescuers and law enforcement move a body that was recovered after Monday’s deadly boat fire   (Daniel Dreifuss / Associated Press) 30/39 The body of a victim is moved at Santa Barbara Harbor.  (Daniel Dreifuss / Associated Press) 31/39 U.S Coast Guard searches for victims of the dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island on Monday afternoon.  (Patrick T Fallon / For The Times ) 32/39 Dive boat captain Jerry Boylan is brought back to U.S Coast Guard headquarters at Channel Islands Harbor on Monday in Oxnard.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 33/39 Firefighters arrive back at the U.S Coast Guard Station after battling the fire.  (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times) 34/39 The captain of the Grape Escape boat which rescued survivors of a boat fire off the Channel Islands Coast Guard Station Channel Islands in Oxnard on Monday.  (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) 35/39 Firefighters battle a blaze on a dive boat near Santa Cruz Island.  (Santa Barbara County Fire Department) 36/39 A diving boat fire near Santa Cruz Island off the Ventura County coast   (Santa Barbara County Fire Department) 37/39 The dive boat Conception is engulfed in flames after a deadly fire broke out aboard the vessel off the Southern California Coast.  (Santa Barbara County) 38/39 The dive boat Conception seen at dawn Monday burns off Santa Cruz Island.  (Santa Barbara County Fire) 39/39 Conception the boat that caught fire off Ventura County.  (Truth Aquatics) Now as investigators search for the cause of the fire that killed everyone in the bunk room — one crew member and all 33 passengers — questions are mounting about the design of the Conception and its emergency escape routes By various accounts, both the design of the boat and the layout of its sleeping quarters met federal standards and both are widely popular among California operators of overnight dive and fishing excursion vessels. Like other such commercial boats, the Conception was subject to annual inspections by the Coast Guard, most recently in February, when it was certified to be in compliance with all regulations. What we know about the Conception’s escape routes But just because it passed muster with the Coast Guard does not mean the Conception was as safe as it could be, according to some naval design and safety experts who have raised concerns about the placement of the escape routes from the bunk room. John McDevitt, a former assistant fire chief from Pennsylvania who is an accredited marine surveyor and the chairman of a National Fire Protection Assn. committee on commercial and pleasure boat fire protection, called the Conception “a compliant fire trap.” “What bothers me is that the vessel was inspected by a Coast Guardsman within the last 12 months,” said McDevitt, who thinks the design of emergency exits was problematic. “This boat has been checked by the Coast Guard for 40 years almost.” The Conception was one of three “live-aboard” dive boats operated out of Santa Barbara Harbor by Truth Aquatics Inc., which has been in business since 1974 and is now owned by Glen Fritzler. He declined The Times’ requests for an interview, but has defended his crew members’ actions in trying to save the doomed passengers. Fritzler said in a statement that he is working with National Transportation Safety Board investigators and is “committed to finding accurate answers as quickly as possible.” He also said he and his family are “utterly crushed” by the accident. “My family and I are speaking today with extremely heavy hearts,” he said. “No words will ease the pain that loved ones are feeling. We extend our deepest condolences to all those involved in this horrific tragedy.” The Conception was built in Long Beach in 1981, designed by its original owner and the company’s long-retired founder, Roy Hauser, specifically for multiday dive trips. “I designed the entire layout of the vessel,” Hauser said. “I drew it out a quarter inch to the foot and then gave it to a marine architect. They put together the final Coast Guard papers, if you will. Glen has all the plans and they are all stamped ‘approved.’ … Everything you do has to be approved by the Coast Guard.” Hauser said Fritzler had kept the boat in “immaculate” condition and he defended its design characteristics as “absolutely” safe. He noted that many of its features are common to California dive and fishing boats, an assertion backed by others in the industry. Ken Kurtis, a veteran California diver and instructor whose Reef Seekers Dive Co. has organized trips since 1988, said he’d been aboard the Conception many times. He described its three-level design as very similar to other such boats: sleeping quarters below deck, a main deck that includes a covered galley toward the bow with open-air dive area at the stern, and the wheelhouse with the captain’s controls at the top. Kurtis said there was nothing extraordinary about the 75-foot boat’s combination of double- and triple-stacked bunks, or its passenger limit of 46 — the count was 13 below that capacity when the fire broke out. “Passenger loads vary by the size of the vessel,” he said. “They had on this one 33 passengers. That’s a normal number for a dive boat. Most of the big dive boats are 30 to 35 and they are all designed pretty much the same way, with the bunks at the bottom, the galley and salon in the middle, and the wheelhouse on top.” Chris Barry, chairman of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers’ small craft technical and research committee, agreed that the Conception’s structure and cramped sleeping quarters were not unusual. Some California divers have dubbed the popular configuration a “cattle boat” style of excursion, because of the tight space and lack of staterooms and other cabin amenities. In a mayday call about a boat fire near Santa Cruz Island the caller says he can’t breathe and there’s no escape hatch for those below deck “The people who are on these dive boats are just crashing below,” Barry said All they want to do is crash and sleep — they don’t need a lot of luxury and there’s obviously a trade-off between the amount of space per person and the cost.” The crowded quarters might “look a little rough” but they are “absolutely legal,” he said noting that sailors on Coast Guard cutters also sleep in three-high bunks “There’s nothing that unusual about the vessel,” he said The fact that no passengers below deck escaped has focused attention on the bunk room’s exits The stairs in the sleeping quarters led to the galley The escape hatch over bunks in the rear of the room opened up into a dining area adjacent to the galley and just a few feet from the open-air dive deck Officials have said fire blocked both exits Some victims’ names are released as their families and the boat operator prepare for a legal battle “I definitely have concerns about the ability of those passengers being able to evacuate during a fire,” NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy told The Times this week Homendy said she was “taken aback” by the size and location of the emergency hatch when she toured the Conception’s sister ship the Vision “You have to climb up a ladder and across the top bunk and then push a wooden door up,” she said It surprised me how small it was and how difficult it was to access.” The vessel appears to meet current federal regulations, which require boats such as the Conception to have “at least two means of escape,” including stairways and emergency hatches “The two required means of escape must be widely separated and at opposite ends of the space to minimize the possibility of one incident blocking both escapes,” the regulation states noting also that exits must be “sufficient for rapid evacuation in an emergency.” Religious leaders and an official from the county’s Department of Behavioral Wellness spoke about the need to heal after the tragedy and how the sea can be a source of comfort It’s not clear if passengers ever had a chance to try to escape. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, who is also the coroner, said smoke inhalation is the likely cause of death. Still, McDevitt, the marine surveyor who also is a Coast Guard-certified captain, said that the design of the boat was flawed. He questioned why both egress points — the stairwell and the hatch — deposited passengers into the galley and adjacent dining area. “When you put two exits into the same common area, you are not providing two means of egress — it’s still only one,” he said. “You are exiting into the galley and common area.” He said that irrespective of the minimum standards, the volume of passengers seemed to call for more exit passages. McDevitt suggested adding “another hatch, and maybe a bigger hatch,” but noted that options would be limited on a boat of that age. A preliminary investigation into the boat fire has suggested safety deficiencies aboard the vessel, including the lack of a “roaming night watchman” who is required to be awake and alert passengers in the event of a fire or other dangers. “You don’t want to make a boat less seaworthy, so you can’t put hatches in the side,” he said. “If they built that boat today, they could do more. …. When you put people down there in that dungeon, it’s got to be watertight.” Paul Kamen, a forensic naval architect and mechanical engineer based in Berkeley, said he thought the size of the roughly 2-feet-square escape hatch was adequate, but he also questioned placing both points of exit in the galley and nearby dining area. “The common areas for fire to start are the galley or the engine room, so there’s always one [other] escape route. Whatever one is on fire, you go out the other way,” he said. “The problem here is both escape routes went through the galley, and you lost that redundancy when the galley is engulfed in flames.” Kamen had no problem with the boat’s passenger capacity, agreeing that many divers “would think it’s cool to be stuffed in an environment like that — it’s a connection with the traditions of the sea to be in a triple-high bunk bed with 30 other people.” He said he is more intrigued by the fire’s rapid growth. “The big mystery is why the fire propagated so far and so fast,” Kamen said. “I don’t think the fact that wood furnishings in the passenger cabin really explain it.” Matt Hamilton is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting with colleagues Harriet Ryan and Paul Pringle and was part of the team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the San Bernardino terrorist attack. A graduate of Boston College and the University of Southern California, he joined The Times in 2013. Print The Life at Conception Act is fewer than 300 words but its language leaves little room for ambiguity on abortion House earlier in the congressional session seeks “equal protection for the right to life of each born and preborn human person,” specifying that it covers “all stages of life or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.” Put simply: “It would be a nationwide abortion ban,” said Mary Ziegler a professor at UC Davis School of Law who studies reproductive rights which has positioned itself as a haven for abortion rights The legislation was co-sponsored by more than half of California’s Republican congressional delegation — including three representatives who face highly competitive races in the November midterm elections: Reps Mike Garcia of Santa Clarita and David Valadao of Hanford But in the two months since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling overturned Roe vs stripping away constitutional protections for abortion the candidates have been noticeably quiet on the issue Republican candidates in tight races have appeared on the defensive releasing ads downplaying their antiabortion stances Instead of celebrating the monumental reversal of Roe vs the GOP is trying to turn the focus elsewhere even as Democrats aim to keep the spotlight fixed on it “I think Republicans in California would like to pretend [the abortion issue] doesn’t exist,” said Jodi Balma a political science professor at Fullerton College who supports abortion rights In the past, Steel, Garcia and Valadao have quietly backed an array of antiabortion efforts. All three signed onto a brief asking the Supreme Court to end federal protections for abortion and they each carry A+ ratings from Susan B running for reelection in one of Southern California’s most closely watched races signed onto the Life at Conception Act as a co-sponsor 16 months ago she says discussions “surrounding a nationwide ban on abortion are purely hypothetical at this point.” Eight in 10 California voters say abortion is an important issue when voting this year while 71% say they plan to vote Yes on Proposition 1 a constitutional amendment to enshrine reproductive rights in the state Constitution “Dobbs has changed the reality of the abortion debate and I don’t think everybody understands that yet,” Balma said After Roe was overturned in June, voters in conservative Kansas resoundingly rejected an effort to remove abortion protections from the state constitution Democrats this summer have gotten more of the vote than Joe Biden did in those districts in 2020 a sign that the pro-abortion rights energy may be lasting said the legislation’s ban on abortion could also extend to some contraceptives Steel and Garcia were not made available for interviews but provided statements about the abortion debate Both indicated they back exceptions to abortion bans in cases of rape incest or threats to the mother’s health — a departure from the bill The measure is dormant in the Democratic-led Congress but that could change if Republicans take control of either chamber next year The Valadao campaign did not respond to inquiries for this story While legislation stalls on the federal level there has been a flurry of activity in conservative states since the Dobbs ruling Thirteen states, in anticipation of Roe being overturned, had “trigger laws” in place to ban abortion as soon as the Supreme Court issued its ruling, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights while several others had pre-Roe abortion restrictions that had gone unenforced Indiana became the first state to pass a ban on the procedure since the Dobbs ruling Laws are in flux in many states as advocates sue to block the restrictions Bills have been introduced in eight states to grant fetuses legal rights, according to the Guttmacher Institute a nonprofit that supports access to abortion and tracks abortion regulations Georgia and Arizona have passed bills granting fetal personhood but the law in the Grand Canyon State was blocked by a federal judge in July who ruled that the measure was too vague In a statement the day the Supreme Court reversed the 1973 Roe ruling Garcia said abortion is now an issue for the states and that the decision “will not change access to abortions” for Californians “If you are concerned over your abortion rights,” he said “call your state assemblyman or senator as the law now falls under the guidance of Sacramento.” is trying to keep the focus on the economy and inflation said economic issues are “at the forefront of” the lives of voters in his district “Garcia will keep fighting for them on those issues — and voters will have their say on the issue of abortion at the state and local level But Democrats are seeking to make it hard for Republicans to sidestep the issue The party has spent more than $57 million on television and digital ads mentioning abortion since the Dobbs ruling according to the media tracking firm AdImpact compared with just over $10 million for Republicans Democrats are further highlighting the issue by backing Proposition 1 which would add language to the state constitution saying women have the “fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.” If Democrats are going to pull off a surprise in November and maintain control of the House it will have to be with the help of voters in districts like Steel’s which curves through a section of northern Orange and southern Los Angeles counties “Those communities have a very uneasy relationship with the Republican Party generally,” Madrid said. “They are still Republicans because they’re not Democrats. But these social issues have been really testing their ability to stay in the party.” Politics The Supreme Court’s expected reversal of Roe vs Wade may sway college-educated women’s votes in key congressional races in places like Orange County The number of registered Democrats in Orange County has increased by more than 4,100 since a draft of the landmark abortion decision was leaked in May — compared with a jump of just 946 for Republicans according to data from the Orange County Registrar of Voters “When you touch something as fundamental as women’s bodily autonomy that is going to drive out turnout,” said Jay Chen in particular — they’ve overreached by sponsoring and pushing for the overturn of Roe vs Wade and sponsoring things like the Life at Conception Act.” a businessman and Navy Reserve intelligence officer has frequently attacked Steel over the issue on social media Steel said she is “proud to support life,” with exceptions to abortion bans for rape she portrayed Democrats as too permissive in allowing abortions late in pregnancy House Democrats recently passed a bill that would allow states to place prohibitions on abortion after viability except in cases when a woman’s life or health are at risk The measure has no chance of success in the Senate I don’t support the Democrats’ radical agenda of abortion on demand or painful late-term abortions where we know the child can feel pain nor do I support taxpayer-funded abortion,” Steel said “I also believe we must protect women and ensure they understand all the resources they have in order to choose life.” Valadao has come under fire from his Democratic opponent The assemblyman called Valadao’s support for the Life at Conception Act “appalling.” “We must prevent this bill from passing,” he said in a statement But the issue may play a less prominent role in Valadao’s district than it does in Orange and L.A. counties, said Thomas Holyoke, a political science professor at Fresno State University. “I think that it’s going to be a little more muted in this district than, perhaps, in some,” he said, adding that economic issues and water are likely to be more important in the agriculture-rich Central Valley. “It’s a Democratic-leaning district, no question about it, but it’s a lot of conservative Democrats.” The challenge is greater for Garcia, whose northern L.A. County district has become more Democratic after redistricting. Former state Assemblywoman Christy Smith, who has lost to Garcia twice, hopes abortion will help make the difference this time around. “With so much focus and momentum on the issue, with the fact that we will have a statewide ballot initiative to codify those protections in our state constitution, this is absolutely an issue that could really change the shape of this election,” she said. Jasper Goodman was a summer 2022 national politics reporting intern at the Los Angeles Times. He is a rising senior at Harvard College, where he serves as managing editor of the Harvard Crimson. Goodman previously interned for the Boston Globe, the Hill and VTDigger. A proud native of Waterbury Center, Vt., he is an avid East Coast skier and a lifelong Red Sox fan. “Mayday, mayday, mayday! ... Conception ... north side of Santa Cruz,” a man yelled. “I can’t breathe!” He said dozens were trapped on board the Conception a 75-foot commercial dive boat that was engulfed in flames as it sat anchored near the shoreline of Santa Cruz Island Around that time, surviving crew members woke Shirley Hansen as they pounded frantically on the side of her nearby fishing boat Two crew members jumped back into the dinghy in hopes of rescuing others “But they came back and there was no one that they found,” Hansen said At least 15 people were confirmed dead, and others were still missing late Monday, authorities said. Five people survived — the crew members, who had been awake and jumped overboard. Officials expressed little hope of finding anyone else alive. Full coverage: California boat fire The names of the dead and missing have not been released One crewman said his girlfriend was trapped aboard. Another said the Conception had celebrated the birthdays of three passengers — including that of a 17-year-old girl aboard with her parents — just hours before The horror of the event — one of California’s worst maritime disasters in recent memory — was palpable among officials “This isn’t a day we wanted to wake up to for Labor Day and it’s a very tragic event,” Coast Guard Capt Monica Rochester said at an afternoon news conference passersby stopped by a makeshift memorial at the Santa Barbara Harbor to pay their respects to victims “Every candle that I lit made me feel like I was representing someone that passed away in the boat,” Aldana said Local, state and federal investigators were trying to determine exactly what went wrong on the Conception, a vessel once described by California Diving News as “California’s crown jewel of live-aboard dive boats.” ‘I can’t breathe.... there’s no escape hatch’: Dramatic mayday call from boat on fire Victims who had signed up for a three-day dive excursion were believed to be in their bunks below deck when the fire started about 20 yards off the north shore of Santa Cruz Island part of the Channel Islands off the Ventura County coast “Most everybody was asleep,” said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, noting the combination of remote location, rapidly spreading fire and the victims’ vulnerable position on the boat. “You couldn’t ask for a worse situation.” Fire crews rushed to extinguish the boat, which sank about 7:20 a.m. Monday and now lies inverted on the ocean floor, about 60 feet down. Hansen said it had been a quiet night in the cove in Platts Harbor. She and her husband, Bob, had spent the day on the water, cooked a calico bass she had caught, and gone to bed. The Madera couple were unaware of the Conception, anchored about 200 yards away. They thought they were alone in the cove. She described the pounding that awoke them as “horrific.” “Our boat is very well made,” she said. “Having that sound come through [showed] they were very in need of help.” “As it was burning, there would be explosions going off every couple of minutes,” Bob Hansen said. “It was probably some of the dive tanks exploding. It made me feel so helpless.” Shirley Hansen said they brought the most injured crew member to an ambulance ashore, while the man who identified himself as the captain stayed behind with the Coast Guard. “We don’t feel like good Samaritans,” she said. “We just happened to be in the right place at the right time.” One of the Conception’s crew members is among the missing or dead. ‘Devastating. Tragic.’ Frantic family and friends await answers The Conception launched from from its base in Santa Barbara Harbor on Saturday morning. At Santa Barbara Harbor, employees were hugging each other as people boarded boats on fishing excursions. The company that owns Conception, Truth Aquatics, runs several boats off the Channel Islands and is a well-established name in the diving world. Glen Fritzler, the boat owner, won the California Scuba Service Award this year for his pioneering work in the industry. The Conception is where Fritzler met “the love of his life, Dana,” California Diving News reported. “On the couple’s first dive together they encountered a 17-foot great white shark, truly a memorable first dive-date experience.” Fritzler told the paper his firm’s boats have hosted more than 450,000 divers and more than 1 million dives. Ralph Clevenger, a photographer who regularly takes pictures of expeditions for Truth Aquatics, has been on hundreds of diving trips with the company since the 1990s. He said the man who usually captained the Conception was a veteran, top-notch leader. Rochester, the Coast Guard captain, said the Conception “has been in full compliance” with maritime regulations. Bruce Rausch, a veteran dive master in Orange County, said he has been on more than a dozen diving trips aboard the Conception. He said dives are preceded by extensive safety briefings including the location of bunk room exits and life jackets. On social media, the scuba diving community expressed grief Monday. “The boat, owners, Captain and crew have always been exemplary and have kept us safe and returned us back to the dock,” according to a Facebook post from San Luis Obispo dive shop SLO Ocean Currents. “It is a humbling day and a reminder to make every day count.” Once the fire started, it was too late for many on board the Conception Investigators seek cause of deadly fire aboard California dive boat a Thousand Oaks dive shop: “I know we speak for the SoCal diving community when we say we were shocked to hear the news this morning.” And Gov. Gavin Newsom posted: “Our hearts are with the families and loved ones affected by this tragic incident. As we wait to hear more, we are eternally grateful for our heroic first responders that are on site — working to ensure every individual is found.” Times staff writers Soumya Karlamangla, Jaclyn Cosgrove, Laura Newberry, Louis Sahagun, Leila Miller, Matt Hamilton, Carolyn Cole, Ben Welsh and Christopher Goffard contributed to this report. Mark Puente covered the Los Angeles Police Department for the Los Angeles Times from 2019-20. Hailey Branson-Potts is a Metro reporter who joined the Los Angeles Times in 2011. She reports on a wide range of issues and people, with a special focus on communities along the coast. She grew up in the small town of Perry, Okla., and graduated from the University of Oklahoma. That all changed Monday in the flash of a predawn fire near Santa Cruz Island, when the Conception sank in flames, taking with it more than 30 people who were below deck in bunk beds, apparently unable to get out The cause has yet to be determined, but regardless of what sparked and fueled the fire, this much is clear: Once it started, it was too late for most of those on board to safely escape. Full coverage: California boat fire “This is probably the worst-case scenario you could possibly have,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said Monday noting the boat’s remote location and the time of day — about 3:15 a.m — when the passengers were probably asleep “So you can imagine that of all scenarios: to be in a remote location firefighting capabilities that could address that and then to have all of a sudden a fire that spread very very rapidly — you couldn’t ask for a worse situation,” he said Only the five crew members, who were topside and awake when the fire took hold, managed to escape. At least 15 people were confirmed dead. Some bodies were found inside the ship operations division chief of the Santa Barbara City Fire Department The National Transportation Safety board is investigating the accident along with Santa Barbara County fire and sheriff’s departments × (()=>{const e=document.getElementById("yt-img-QF5BsnxL_qE");e&&e.addEventListener("load",(t=>{t.target.naturalWidth<=120&&(e.parentNode.children[0].srcset=e.parentNode.children[1].srcset=e.src)}),{once:!0})})() The Conception was one of three dive boats operated out of Santa Barbara Harbor by Truth Aquatics Inc., owned by Glen Fritzler, who began diving as a 12-year-old and has been with the company since 1979. Others familiar with the Conception and its operator said they were shocked to learn it was involved in such an accident. “Truth Aquatics runs one of the best operations, otherwise they wouldn’t be in business,” said Ralph Clevenger, a photographer who regularly shoots pictures for the company and has been on hundreds of its dive trips since the 1990s. “Most of its customers are return customers.” Dozens were trapped below deck in California boat fire The wood-hulled Conception was built in Long Beach in 1981, according to Coast Guard records and the company’s website, and was powered by 550-horsepower Detroit Diesel engines, with a total fuel capacity of 1,600 gallons. The below-deck sleeping area had 20 single bunks and 13 doubles, some stacked three-high, to accommodate up to 46 people. At the bow end of the bunk room was a curving staircase that led up to the galley area. Toward the stern, an escape hatch was situated above one of the bunks and led to the salon deck, which included the galley. “It’s on a ceiling of the bunk room or the floor of the galley,” said Bruce Rausch, 69, a veteran dive master in Orange County and a retired San Onofre nuclear engineer who’d been on more than a dozen dive trips aboard the Conception. “All you have to do is get up to a bunk and keep going up and you use the bunk as ladders.” It is not known if those in the bunk area were cut off from the exits by smoke or flames. Rausch and others who had been aboard the Conception told The Times that fire extinguishers were accessible to those in the bunk area, which also included smoke alarms designed to trigger emergency lighting when activated. He and others said that before all dives, the boat’s captain conducted extensive safety briefings covering the use of life jackets and lifeboats, the location of the escape hatch and methods of traversing the staircase. Biologist missing in boat fire had ‘a love for marine life’ Clevenger said he had never seen any hint of fire hazards or other safety issues. The escape hatch was easily accessible, he said, covered only by a piece of plywood. Joe Belanger, a dive photographer who has been on the Conception, also described the accessibility of the escape hatch and stairway in a Facebook post, but noted the perilous conditions that passengers apparently encountered early Monday. “Finding your way out, though, at 3:30 a.m. when there is no electricity but thick smoke and flames is impossible,” he wrote. U.S. Coast Guard records document regular inspections of the ship, including in February of this year and August 2018, which did not indicate any violations. Previous inspections show deficiencies related to fire safety that were promptly corrected, including a 2017 replacement of a fire extinguisher and a 2016 replacement of a heat detector in the galley’s fire detection system. A leaking fire hose was replaced in 2014 and emergency lighting below deck appears to have been installed in 2009, according to the records. Boat fires often start in engine compartments, where fuel and an ignition source can come together. Other such fires have been traced to electrical sources, such as wiring harnesses or batteries, or to external causes such as fires in marinas or storage facilities. At least 20 people have been confirmed dead on the dive boat Conception after it caught fire early Monday and sank near Santa Cruz Island. Although it’s not known what caused the Conception fire, it is likely that pure oxygen was on board. An online agenda of the trip indicates that Nitrox — a blend of pure oxygen and air — was available for divers. Pure oxygen is not combustible or flammable on its own, but it is a fire’s feed, and can turn a spark into a raging blaze. Because of the inherent danger involved in handling the gas, certification is required to mix and fill scuba tanks holding pure oxygen. Scuba tank explosions are extremely rare in the United States. In 2011, a St. Petersburg, Fla., man died after a faulty tank exploded, creating a 100-foot-wide debris field. Scuba tanks are required to be tested every five years by a Department of Transportation-licensed inspector. A stamp on the cylinder shows the most recent inspection date. Ashley Arnold, owner of Jade Scuba Adventures in Huntington Beach, said the tanks and equipment used by divers using Nitrox or pure oxygen are engineered with particular materials and chemicals designed to suppress accidental fire. And divers and instructors using pure oxygen must have special training. In July 2018, a fishing ship off the coast of Alaska caught fire in the early morning. Crew members tried to douse the flames with portable extinguishers but they had to abandon ship and escape to a nearby fishing boat. The NTSB determined the fire probably began in the engine room from an unknown source. The Conception was also involved in diving accidents that turned deadly. The most recent occurred 2016, when a diver ascended to the surface faster than the rest of his group and became unresponsive while swimming toward the boat. A medical examiner concluded he drowned, with heart disease as a contributing factor. The boat made headlines in 2005 when it was stolen from Santa Barbara Harbor, allegedly by a 41-year old homeless man who damaged several other boats with it before beaching it at Vandenberg Air Force Base, records show. Laura Newberry is a former reporter with the lifestyle section at the Los Angeles Times. She wrote Group Therapy, a weekly newsletter that answers readers’ questions about mental health. She previously worked on The Times’ education team and was a staff reporter at both the Reading Eagle in Eastern Pennsylvania and MassLive in Western Massachusetts. She graduated from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and also has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Central Florida. × (()=>{const e=document.getElementById("yt-img-k7mS-uFwmfM");e&&e.addEventListener("load",(t=>{t.target.naturalWidth<=120&&(e.parentNode.children[0].srcset=e.parentNode.children[1].srcset=e.src)}),{once:!0})})() The nonprofit Nature Conservancy announced it has bought one of the largest undeveloped stretches of California coastline Print A conservation group on Thursday purchased a sprawling stretch of Santa Barbara County coastline — a prized acquisition made possible by a $165-million gift from a couple who had long sought to protect the pristine ranchland from development The nonprofit Nature Conservancy acquired the Cojo-Jalama Ranches which comprise roughly 24,000 acres and eight miles of coastline south of Vandenberg Air Force Base director of the conservancy’s California ocean program Valued for its sacred sites by the Chumash and operated for more than 100 years as a cattle ranch the twin parcels straddling Point Conception are a time capsule of oak woodlands coastal prairies and beaches whose breaks are revered by surfers “This is not just any place,” said Mike Sweeney executive director of the Nature Conservancy in California Point Conception — sometimes referred to as the “elbow of California” — is a point of demarcation between the state’s distinct southern and northern ecosystems a place where the cold Pacific current meets the warmer waters sweeping up from Baja California Santa Barbara County maintains a 23-acre park on the property at Jalama Beach on a sliver of coastline at the boundary of Vandenberg and the property. Under a separate agreement giving the public access to an additional 36 acres “The property is at the intersection of many interests” — the Chumash “It makes this land a conservation puzzle.” The property will be renamed the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve for the entrepreneurs and longtime environmental preservation advocates who donated the money “Most people think of conservation in terms of the iconic places like Yosemite or the redwood forests or the Grand Canyon,” Jack Dangermond said in an interview but California’s oak forests are just as important ecologically Dangermond said he and his wife first drove this portion of the California coast in 1967 when they were “kids on their honeymoon.” The acquisition “is like a dream come true a chance for us to realize some kids’ dreams to protect this land in perpetuity,” Dangermond said The couple founded their Redlands-based company ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) a developer of mapping and analytic software and had been interested in acquiring the land for the last 12 years The Cojo-Jalama Ranches are home to more than 50 endangered and rare species dry summers have created a “hot spot” of biodiversity The Southwestern pond turtle and the Gaviota tarplant are among its unique species and California quail and roadrunners also are abundant Wildlife corridors to the beaches have allowed badgers “This is truly a wild part of the California coastline and the most wild of Southern California,” Bell said “This is a place where you can look down and see sea lions on the rocks sight great white sharks off the coast and whales taking harbor and protection in the coves before rounding Point Conception north.” The Nature Conservancy intends to maintain the cattle operations on the property and keep it closed to the public while it conducts an 18-month study of its resources in conjunction with UC Santa Barbara The Dangermonds have endowed a chair at the university that will research the area’s cultural and natural geography “We would like to create a world-class platform for research and conservation science,” Sweeney said The conservancy plans to manage the property in the same way that it manages the land it owns on Santa Cruz Island where habitat and wildlife are monitored and visitation is limited to research and environmental education programs but some areas deserve to be protected in their natural form,” said Dangermond citing not just the area’s delicate ecosystems but its archaeological and present-day significance to the Chumash the Cojo-Jalama Ranches have been the focus of sporadic development efforts there was talk of building a steel mill and a factory town on the Cojo Ranch Fred Bixby purchased that property and in 1939 acquired the adjacent Jalama Ranch His holdings became the privately held Bixby Ranch Co the company allowed construction of an oil processing facility on the bluffs near Cojo Beach with pipelines cutting across the property spent $22 million on restrictions to minimize potential safety issues related to Vandenberg’s nearby rocket-launch facility The restrictions laid out where development such as golf courses sold the property for about $140 million to investors that included Boston-based hedge fund the Baupost Group the ranch management company began digging wells grading roads and removing native habitat in violation of the Coastal Act notified the manager of the violations in 2011 enforcement officers met with representatives of the owner but were unable to resolve the complaints according to testimony at a recent commission hearing When the Baupost Group took over managing the property in February negotiations with the commission’s enforcement unit gained momentum the commission unanimously accepted a mitigation plan that called for planting 200 acres with oaks transferring 36 acres south of Jalama Beach to Santa Barbara County Parks and a payment of $500,000 to the state panel’s “violation remediation account.” For Susan Jordan with the California Coastal Protection Network of the Jalama Beach County Park was “extraordinary.” “I have goosebumps because getting that type of access has been impossible,” she said at the November hearing that’s the proverbial cherry on top of the cake.” The Dangermonds said they hope their gift to the Nature Conservancy encourages similar philanthropic efforts “We’re willing to expose ourselves to some level of notoriety with the hope that it will inspire others to do what we did,” Jack Dangermond said thomas.curwen@latimes.com Twitter: @tcurwen Thomas Curwen is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times who specialized in long-form narratives. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2008 for feature writing. Print SANTA BARBARA — For the Quitasol family the Labor Day weekend scuba diving trip to the Channel Islands was supposed to be a celebration at sea They were celebrating Michael’s birthday with a luxurious three-day excursion that was to include diving amid the kelp forests But now, the five members of the family are believed to be among 34 people presumed killed when a fire broke out aboard the ship before sunrise Monday, said the sisters’ stepfather, Chris Rosas. Evan was a nurse in the emergency department of a Stockton-area hospital, Rosas said. Nicole was a bartender who worked in a lounge in Coronado, which allowed her to live near her beloved ocean. Angela was a middle school science teacher with the Lincoln Unified School District in Stockton. “They were the most kind, most loving people I’ve ever met, and I’m not just saying that because they’re family,” Rosas said. “The way they interacted with anyone they ever came across, they were wonderful.” Most of the victims were believed to be from Northern California, authorities said Tuesday. Much remained unknown about the passengers, but Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said he believed a teenager as young as 17 and adults in their 60s were on board. At an afternoon news conference at the Santa Barbara County sheriff’s headquarters a reporter asked authorities: “At this point are you assuming that all 34 passengers did not make it?” “That would be a correct assumption,” said U.S The cause of the blaze remains under investigation Five crew members who were on the boat’s uppermost level survived the fire. A sixth crew member who was asleep in the same area as the passengers is feared to be among the dead. The remains of 20 people — 11 female and nine male — have been found. Fourteen people remain missing. The sheriff said that authorities have a list of passengers who were supposed to be on the boat and are working to confirm that they were on board. Authorities had not released victims’ names as of Tuesday. Brown said most of the passengers appear to have been from around Santa Cruz and San Jose. In the hours after the ship went down, news of their loved ones’ fate gradually reached the victims’ relatives. Chris Rosas and his wife, Susana, learned about the fire midday Monday and rushed from their Stockton home to Santa Barbara, where they waited at a family assistance center at the Earl Warren Showgrounds. Evan Quitasol and her father and stepmother had worked at Kaiser Permanente medical facilities in the Stockton area. Names of those missing and dead are being withheld pending next-of-kin notifications we are so saddened by the tragic deaths of our colleagues Fernisa Sison along with all those aboard the Conception,” Corwin Harper senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser Permanente Central Valley “Our sympathies are with their family and friends at this time.” flowers were affixed to a fence near Santa Barbara Harbor someone had hung a red and white flag meant to signify that a diver is in the water “Fair winds and following seas; we’ll remember you on every dive.” A message written on a pair of blue diving flippers read the boat that caught fire off Ventura County.  (Truth Aquatics) Jenny Stafford of Santa Barbara who stood vigil by the memorial all Monday night said that several relatives of victims had visited the site “A man fell to his knees and sobbed uncontrollably,” Stafford said referring to one victim’s father and sister who came from Chicago A young woman who only gave her first name was the sixth crew member aboard the Conception Her family had called around frantically on Monday, she said, only to learn late in the day that her sister was below deck when the fire broke out and did not survive. “It makes no sense,” Olivia said, her voice breaking. “It’s not fair — not fair at all.” She hugged a woman who had placed a bouquet of flowers against the fence and walked away, a gaggle of television crews trailing after her. All missing passengers aboard Conception presumed dead Family members told WKRC-TV in Cincinnati that Allie Kurtz moved to Los Angeles to work in the movie industry then focused on becoming a dive instructor Culver City Councilman Alex Fisch on Tuesday night adjourned a council meeting in honor of his memory of his close friend Charles “Chuck” McIlvain whom he described as a “radiant bright light in many people’s lives,” worked at Sony Pictures Imageworks in Culver City for 15 years Fisch saw the news about the fire Monday morning he checked Facebook and saw a post someone had written mentioning that McIlvain was going diving over the weekend in the Channel Islands “I looked at the comments below the Facebook post and people were freaking out and wondering if they were on that charter.” mountain biking and snowboarding and recently had celebrated turning 44 was “someone who people cherished every moment with.” “I can’t emphasize enough the unique combination of creativity intelligence and wonderful presence that he had,” Fisch said Also among the missing are two students of Pacific Collegiate School according to parents of students at the school “Our hearts and prayers are with the families of the victims and those that are missing particularly those of our students,” the school wrote in a statement our priority as a school is to support our students Also on board was Kristy Finstad, a 41-year-old marine biologist who was helping lead the weekend expedition for her family’s scuba company, Worldwide Diving Adventures. She had dived in the area near Santa Cruz Island hundreds of times, said her brother, Brett Harmeling. Sheriff Brown said that officials have received more than 100 calls from family or friends who believe their loved ones were aboard the Conception. Investigators are comparing information from the callers with the list of passengers on the boat. Family members have been asked for DNA samples, collected using cheek swabs, to compare with the bodies. Suzanne Grimmesey, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Department of Behavioral Wellness, said that more than 20 families from across the state and the East Coast have come to an assistance center set up by the county for relatives of the victims. “They’re in a state of shock,” she said. “For families to hear there weren’t survivors was incredibly difficult.” Times staff writers Colleen Shalby, Leila Miller and Hannah Fry, Mark Puente, Soumya Karlamangla and Laura J. Nelson contributed to this report. Matthew Ormseth is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Before joining The Times in 2018, he covered city news and state politics at the Hartford Courant. Print SANTA BARBARA — Months ago Truth Aquatics owner Glen Fritzler spoke to Ralph Clevenger who creates visual content for the company about making a safety video that would play while passengers boarded his dive boats The video settles briefly on a person opening the Conception’s escape hatch It’s located underneath a counter in the dining area where passengers stop by to sign the manifest and bears a red sign with the words ‘emergency exit’ and ‘keep clear.’ Clevenger, a photographer, finished the video the day before a fire on the Conception last week killed 34 people in the worst maritime disaster in modern California history including the possibility that passengers did not receive thorough safety briefings The Times spoke to more than a dozen people who have recently been on Truth Aquatics boats Although many remembered the crew as professional and conscientious of safety protocols some said that the captain’s initial safety briefing was inadequate and that they were never told about the escape hatch “I have no idea how we would have gotten out of that room in an emergency,” said Josiah Wilcox of Santa Rosa who was on the Conception in April for a trip with the Sierra Club Those who died were presumed to be sleeping in the bunk area of the boat There were two ways out to the deck — a staircase on one side Both led to the galley area, where some believe the fire may have started. Surviving crew members who were above deck when the fire broke out told National Transportation Safety Board investigators the flames were too intense to save anyone. Still, the hatch has received scrutiny from the NTSB. Jennifer Homendy, who is leading the investigation, said she was “taken aback” by the size of the emergency hatch when she toured the Vision — an 80-foot sister vessel to the Conception. “You have to climb up a ladder and across the top bunk and then push a wooden door up,” she said. “It was a tight space. We couldn’t turn the light on.” Video frame grab shows divers resuming their search Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, for the final missing victim who perished in a boat fire off the Southern California coast. (KABC-TV) Clevenger said the video was intended to be similar to what passengers on airplanes watch before takeoff. Safety briefings on Truth Aquatics boats often take place once the boat has reached its destination. Fritzler was looking for a way to brief passengers before then, he said. Clevenger, who has been on hundreds of diving trips with the company since the 1990s, said the captain would speak from the dining area next to the galley and refer to a written script during the briefing. Among other things, he would identify the escape hatch, point out the location of life vests and life rafts, and introduce the crew. The probe is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard criminal investigative group under the oversight of the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. “I have never heard a captain on any of the boats deviate from the script, omit things or forget to say things,” he said. “If they do, the crew members say ‘Hey, hey.’” He added that laminated sheets throughout the boat — including in the bunk area — contained safety information as well. Others have said they could not have felt safer among the Conception’s crew. Zach Smith of San Luis Obispo, a diver who went on dozens of trips aboard the Conception, would typically hear Jerry Boylan, the captain of the boat the day of the fire, give a 15- to 20-minute safety briefing. He said Boylan would instruct passengers not to put anything over the escape hatch. “He makes everyone listen to it whether they’ve been on 100 times or zero times,” said Smith, who was last on the boat in May for a daylong diving trip. Don Barthelmess, a retired diving instructor who taught at Santa Barbara City College for 30 years, called Boylan “the most experienced captain in the Santa Barbara Channel.” Barthelmess said he chartered the Vision in May and the crew explained safety procedures and pointed out the fire fighting equipment. “They’re very serious about boat briefings,” he said. “I can’t think of a situation where it’s been lax.” Ben Wolfe, a retired Los Angeles County fire captain who goes out with Truth Aquatics about four times a year, was on the Conception for a five-day trip in August. He said he has never had any safety concerns and called the crew “really safety conscious.” “They make sure everybody is out of the bunks and everybody is there,” he said of the morning briefing. “On that cruise, it seemed to me the watchword was ‘safety last,’” he said. He said that passengers did not receive a safety briefing from the time they boarded the boat on Saturday night to the time they arrived at Santa Rosa Island about noon the next day. In the time in between, he said, high waves rocked the boat for hours. “It was extremely rough,” he said. “People were getting sick left and right. I would have liked to have known where the life preservers were.” After the boat anchored, Wilcox said, Boylan gave a safety briefing lasting no longer than five minutes. He said it mostly consisted of pointing passengers to safety cards on tables in the galley area. The captain, he added, did not point out the fire extinguishers on board or mention the escape hatch. In a mayday call about a boat fire near Santa Cruz Island, Calif., the caller says he can’t breathe and there’s no escape hatch for those below deck. Yvonne Churchill Rankin of Salt Lake City said that she could barely sleep the first couple of nights after hearing about the fire. She said that the captain failed to show passengers where the safety hatch was when she dove with her husband last month on the Truth, the Conception’s sister ship. The captain, she said, spoke only generally about the boat before the first dive, talking about the restrooms and telling passengers not to go into certain areas if they were wet. “He made no mention of ‘in case the boat runs into trouble or we run aground, or if someone hits us, or if someone has a medical emergency,’” she said. “There was nothing of that sort at all.” Rankin added that because there were few outlets on board, passengers utilized a lot of power strips, and that power extension cords were strung about in the galley area and bunk room. “There was even an extension cord strung up through the ladder that led up to the safety hatch....Anyone using the route could have gotten entangled in it while trying to escape,” Rankin said. Several others who said there was no mention of the escape hatch during the briefing did not recall other safety issues. Emiliano Wichtendahl of Santa Barbara said the crew did not go over the safety hatch when he was on the Conception several weeks ago. He slept near a staircase that led out of the bunk room and hadn’t known of another exit. “I just knew the stairs and that’s about it,” he said. The Coast Guard has issued new national emergency safety bulletin to passenger vessels intended to improve safety in the wake of the Conception disaster, calling on boat operators nationwide to review safety measures, make sure safety equipment is operational and reduce potential hazards from lithium batteries, power strips and extension cords. Surviving crew members aboard the Conception tell what happened when fire broke out. The bulletin also called on operators to “review emergency duties and responsibilities with the crew to ensure they comprehend and can comply with their obligations in an emergency, including passenger safety orientation, and ensure that emergency escapes are clearly identified, functional and remain clear of objects that may impede egress.” Federal investigators spent several days this week searching the Santa Barbara Harbor office of Truth Aquatics. The FBI on Tuesday asked to public for any information — including videos and photos — about the Conception. Efforts to raise the boat from the Santa Barbara channel have been repeatedly put off due to bad weather. Officials now say the salvage process to raise the boat will begin Thursday. A second video that Clevenger made features Fritzler showing viewers where to secure their tanks on the boat, hang their wet suits and place their spear guns. “Glenn was always improving the boats,” said Clevenger. “He wanted something that was a further reminder of where to put everything and where all the basic safety features were on the boat.” Leila Miller is a former foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times based in Mexico City where she spent several years covering criminal justice including the Luz del Mundo sex abuse case and was part of the team that was a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist for its coverage of the Conception boat fire off the Channel Islands She moved to Mexico in 2021 and was a 2023 Livingston finalist for an investigation on how a centuries-old forensic test has been sending mothers in Latin America to prison for killing their newborns Born in Argentina but raised in Los Angeles Miller is a graduate of Oberlin College and Columbia University’s School of Journalism Born into a family numbering four generations of entrepreneurs Dan Bigras has been making his dreams come true since he was a youngster Five years ago he developed the Chic Shack project on a superb piece of land in La Conception Dan has worked from dawn to dusk all his life:  before Chic Shack he was the biggest producer of carrots in Canada Read on to find out more about a man who truly loves a challenge then the owner of a major market garden operation in southern Québec and Ontario saw a great investment opportunity in Mont-Tremblant and became one of the shareholders of Le Shack and La Forge restaurants “My work as a market gardener let me spend my winters in Tremblant This is where I wanted to live and to retire with a twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his lips His passion for new projects led him to create – with the close collaboration of his companion Marie Sicotte – a huge beautiful enclave in the mountains of La Conception just minutes from Mont-Tremblant The 38 micro-lofts that thus far make up the exclusive neighbourhood are tucked away in this magnificent haven “I was lucky enough to meet the woman of my life fairly late,” Dan Bigras confides “Marie and I developed Chic Shack together She made an enormous contribution to the success of the project,” he adds At the wheel of his pickup with his faithful golden retriever Bradley at his side Dan drove us through the Chic Shack development which is – or is on the verge of becoming – his vision made real 150 lots located beside the Rouge River and on the shores of Lac Xavier make up this vast real estate project The former farmer reminds us that the project developed in partnership with his friend Danny Bonneville could not have taken shape without the support of the people and municipality of La Conception the project could not have seen the light of day,” Mr The architecture of the Chic-Shack micro-lofts – Scandinavian-inspired and combining wood with many large windows – is designed to harmonize with nature The homes’ exposure maximizes the sunlight making the project residences unique in character “Not one tree is cut without the permission of the owners and reforestation is done as soon as the house is in place adding to the impression that the house is at one with the forest,” say Marie Sicotte and Dan Bigras Thirty-eight Bonneville micro-lofts have already been sold and there are only two lots still available on Lac Xavier “Each house was carefully sited to add value to the properties for our clients,” explains Mr “We want the project to feel Zen now and still to feel that way in ten years I think we were very avant-garde in creating our concept,” he notes an outdoor skating rink will have been added to the hiking cross-country-skiing and snowshoeing trails Cyclists and triathletes will enjoy the proximity to the official marked Ironman cycling course and project residents have access to the river it will be hard to resist the advantages of an active “We wanted people to have a playground less than 100 metres from their home,” says Dan we should mention Phase 2 of the Chic Shack project with a new micro-loft model—the Alti—added to those initially offered Ten or so micro-lofts will also be built for rental between now and June According to the notebook of this hardworking entrepreneur chicshackmicrolofts.com and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Phone: 819 425-7875 Print It’s still an old wives’ tale that a woman can plan her child’s sex by timing the month when she conceives but a new study has found that babies conceived at certain times of the year may be predisposed to adverse health outcomes Princeton University health economists Janet Currie and Hannes Schwandt observed a shorter gestation time for infants conceived during the first half of the year possibly reflecting the spike in seasonal flu cases the following January and February The researchers saw the highest average weight for infants conceived in the summer which may be due to seasonal patterns in pregnancy weight gain Pregnancy length and birth weight “are the most commonly examined measures of infant health at birth and… have been associated with child and adult health outcomes,” Currie and Schwandt wrote in a report published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences researchers have investigated the relationship between season of birth and such adult factors as body weight But these studies didn’t control for maternal characteristics that might be confused with the effects of seasonality they couldn’t definitively conclude that observed differences were caused by birth season alone Currie and Schwandt addressed this limitation by comparing siblings conceived by the same mother at different times throughout the year allowing them to control for differences among mothers Drawing from publicly available federal birth data they compared siblings born to 647,050 mothers in New York City representing more than 1.4 million births in all The authors looked at conception month rather than birth month because the latter may obscure gestation length an indicator of whether a mother carried her infant to term although most babies born in July were likely conceived nine months earlier — in November — it’s possible that some were conceived in December or later and born prematurely The study reported that average gestation time dropped relatively steadily each month between January and May when it measured almost a week shorter than that of infants conceived in January Average gestation lengths returned to January levels in June where they remained for the rest of the year Infantsconceived in May had about a 13% higher rate of prematurity than those conceived in other months of the year Since earlier research had linked flu infections to preterm births Currie and Schwandt merged their birth data with influenza monitoring data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1997 onward to find out whether the virus may be to blame for the shorter pregnancy times Currie and Schwandt saw that mothers who conceived in the first five months of the year were more likely to suffer flu symptoms during the month they gave birth reflecting the start of the flu season in late August Babies conceived in May were scheduled to be born in mid-February but tended to suffer a shortened gestation with deliveries happening in late January and early February Previous studies suggest that inflammation caused by flu may trigger the cascade of events that cause labor infants conceived in the summer tended to weigh approximately 8 to 9 grams more than other infants This corresponded to a peak in average pregnancy weight gain during the same time period Currie said this could be due to the increased availability of produce during the summer “We think people may be eating better in the summer,” she said The finding undermines the hypothesis that nutrition is unlikely to drive seasonal birth outcomes in developed countries where the food supply fluctuates little over the year “Even in a population that’s well-nourished there are seasonal differences in weight that are related to seasonal changes in nutrition and have a noticeable impact on birth weight,” Currie said Although Currie acknowledged that the administrative data set she and Schwandt used didn’t reveal details about the mothers’ diets or their flu vaccination status its volume strengthened the credibility of the study results “I think we do a pretty definitive job that there really is a seasonal effect,” she said Currie added that the study could inform public policy by encouraging pregnant women to get flu shots Many women fear taking medication during pregnancy “Pregnant women shouldn’t be afraid to get the flu vaccine,” she said melissa.pandika@latimes.com Twitter: @mmpandika Science & Medicine Violence and hashish-carrying speedboats have surged since Spain’s 2008 economic crisis boosted the town’s smuggling gangs Juan Franco asks his driver to slow down as the car swings on to what is reputed to be one of the most dangerous streets in Europe there are few signs of life around the modest one- and two-storey houses “People expect there to be shootouts here,” says Franco who has been the mayor of La Línea de la Concepción for almost three years Franco doesn’t care for the comparison to the Colombian city once held in thrall by Pablo Escobar but it is one with which he is sadly familiar Over the past few years – and the past 12 months in particular – La Línea, which sprawls in the shadow of the Rock of Gibraltar has acquired an unenviable reputation as Spain’s most troubled town The source of its infamy lies the other side of Calle Canarias along the 7.5-mile (12km) stretch of beach from where police seized 145,372kg of hashish in the region and 11,785kg of cocaine Smuggling is hardly a recent phenomenon in this part of the world But a surge in violence against police officers trying to combat the lucrative drug trade has established La Línea as the frontline of Spain’s battle against the traffickers Things escalated further this February, when 20 masked men stormed La Línea’s hospital to free a suspected drug trafficker Locals complain about a rapid loss of control and growing culture of impunity which sprang up after the British took Gibraltar in the early 18th century has long been on intimate terms with contraband tobacco smuggling grew bigger thanks to much lower prices in Gibraltar than Spain and people brought it to the coast on launches When the Spanish authorities cracked down on the trade in the mid-90s some of the smugglers diversified into Moroccan hashish Their numbers swelled after the economic crisis hit Spain in 2008 forcing many of those who had lost their jobs in the construction sector to look for other ways to pay the bills unemployment in the town stands at about 35% “[People] have got little hope of finding work which makes for ideal circumstances for the narcos.” Approximately 3,000 of La Línea’s 64,000 inhabitants are thought to be involved in the 30 or so gangs that run the drug trade Gang members are said to intermarry to consolidate power and to increase their reach and influence Franciso Mena, the chair of the Alternativas anti-drug association says the upshot has been a “lack of security – but it’s in certain places and because of some very determined people” in the longer term is the damage done to the region’s identity “Who’d want to come and start a business here Who’d want to come here as a teacher or a doctor when the image is basically that it’s not safe?” View image in fullscreenBoxes of hashish on a smuggling boat Photograph: Guardia Civil de InteriorOne local resident wonders whether it doesn’t suit the authorities to turn a blind eye to the situation “The government lets it happen because if they didn’t people would lose it and go around robbing all over the place.” Mena notes that even those on the lowest rung of the narco ladder are well remunerated “The guy with a scooter and a mobile phone who keeps an eye out for the Guardia Civil and the national police will get €1,000 a day,” he says “The guys who haul it off the beach and into cars can get €3,000-€4,000 and the guys who drive the drugboats can make anything between €30,000 and €60,000 a trip but it’s also a very difficult business to leave once you’re in.” who is a little exasperated by the fact that his association is now better known for speaking out about the narcos than for its decades of community work is also lukewarm about the Medellín analogy “Things for people here are normal – they get up for work each day,” he says Many have jobs at the port of Algeciras and thousands more cross over each day to work in Gibraltar “It’s all normal because what’s happening with the hashish trade round here is not new.” a line was crossed when officers were pelted with stones last spring: “It’s basically because the principle of authority has been lost.” Speak to police associations and worries over that lost principle crop up frequently Almost as frequent is the word desanimado – demoralised general secretary of the local Guardia Civil association 0:50Customs boats and a helicopter attempt chase down smugglers headed to La Línea – videoHe also points to the rising number of assault weapons that have been seized and the smugglers’ stark supremacy in the power and speed of their boats “It’s like having a Mercedes-AMG up against a Nissan Primera it’s also the sheer number of speedboats packed with hashish – there can be 10 or 15 crossing at the same time.” acknowledges his officers face unique challenges “It’s not usual in Spain for people to throw stones at the Guardia Civil and it’s not usual for traffickers to ram into Guardia Civil or police cars,” he says Núñez says the recent deployment of the Rapid Action Group (Gar) – an elite Guardia Civil unit – to patrol the beaches has had an impact on trafficking. Similar improvements, he adds, occurred last summer before the Gar was sent to Catalonia to police autumn’s independence crisis View image in fullscreenContraband seized in a joint operation with national police customs surveillance and Civil Guard in the Campo de Gibraltar Photograph: Guardia Civil de Interior‘Hostage to geography and economics’According to the interior ministry seizures of hashish across the region rose by 45% last year while the amount of cocaine confiscated was up by 300% “[But] the problem in La Línea isn’t just a police problem,” says Núñez you’d have the same problem elsewhere in Spain.” Few in town would disagree that La Línea is a hostage to its history geography and post-2008 economic circumstances “The solution needs to have a dual focus,” says Mayor Franco a big police deployment and proper long jail terms But you also need social measures – you need training and education and you need to have jobs for people It’s the only way to get rid of this scourge View image in fullscreenFishing boats in La Línea’s harbour Photograph: Richard Atkins/SolarPixThe regional government of Andalusia has recently announced it will invest €56.5m in the area this year and is launching schemes to improve workers’ qualifications and give young people skills tailored to specific businesses But a hefty injection of private money and investor confidence will also be needed Franco is keen to show off the mega-yachts moored in the marina and away from the fishermen’s houses and the ageing blocks of flats a big La Línea hotel attracts retired Britons lured by full English breakfast buffets and the proximity of Gibraltar One slick restaurant offers grilled foie gras for €13 and local steak for €17.50 a further hint that this is really two towns and not one Franco wants La Línea to be more than a criminal petri dish the empty land by the Gibraltar border and the huge park that is too much for its gardeners it could reinvent itself as a place that attracts families and older holidaymakers rather than drugs and baleful headlines But the mayor is a realist: “I’ll take Magaluf over narcos.” cofounder of Le Shack restaurant and market gardener by profession a professional in the Montreal real estate market innovative project is slowly and surely making its way across 1200 acres of land located in La Conception Both of the project founders have loved this area since they were youngsters, and this final career project was inspired by their many trips through Europe where the mini-house revolution is well underway, complete with its minimalist ecological footprint. For the two promoters, Chic Shack is more than just a real estate project to a small group of people who want a secondary residence at a reasonable cost a lifestyle that focuses primarily on outdoor activities and nature,” says Mr After spending a year making sure that a model home was reliable and functional Daniel Bigras and Marie Sicotte became associated with Bonneville industries which with more than 55 years of experience in the field of pre-fabricated modular construction are past masters in the art of creating innovative ecologically sound and high-performance dwellings The “micro-lofts” are located on 42 half-acre lots in groups around Lac Martin to which access is strictly reserved for purchasers of these contemporary mini-homes The Ministry of the Environment has just given the green light to Phases 2 and 3 including 275 to 350 feet on the lakefront of Lac Xavier As a complement to the proximity to Mont-Tremblant and its charms the job of creating a place propitious to an active lifestyle where people can top up their energy will be undertaken between now and next summer with the creation of 15 km of marked walking trails a covered yoga platform with a splendid view of the surrounding mountains The “micro-loft” series of Bonneville homes offers a range of models varying from 704 to 1148 square feet Purchasers actively participate in their personalization To minimize the environmental impact and maximize the connection with nature and the privacy of residents thus avoiding the destruction of an additional ten metres of forest around each home the materials and suppliers are all from Québec it should be noted that aMicro-Natur two-bedroom home along with a lot in Phase 1 will be offered free to the couple that wins Occupation Double in Bali This project in no means is environmentally sound and is merely a case of green washing that is pushing out all the local residents rerouting rivers and removing rights from previous home owners In 2016, I rode the Gran Fondo Mont-Tremblant The event introduced me to some of the roads of the region that I made sure to get out to explore a bit before I had to head home the day after the big ride when I knew I’d be returning to the Gran Fondo Mont-Tremblant with my colleague Dan Walker (who had done the ride two years ago) we made sure to schedule some more time for riding afterwards a 232-km cycle path and linear park built from an old railway line (See below for Ride with GPS map we started from.) Mathieu at la Sandwicherie thought we should skip that part of le P’tit Train du Nord and head to Chemin du Lac Mercier It was a rolling road with trees close to the edge We heard from a local source that Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas have a place here They enjoy skiing in the area during the winter which I decided to translate as “Money Mountain.” I hear that what’s money about this mountain is the rock and ice climbing We did link up with the le P’tit Train du Nord trail as we neared the old village of Mont-Tremblant once again My return to Mont-Tremblant also gave us the opportunity to try some of the great restaurants in the region. The dining on the resort is great—both Dan and I are fans of La Diable – Microbrasserie—but there is so much great stuff in the nearby towns We went to Seb L’artisan culinaire in the village of Saint-Jovite also referred to as Mont-Tremblant’s downtown The restaurant is 12 years old and in a large old house there’s an traditional carpenter’s bench and a candelabra caked with years of melted candles (They don’t light candles on it anymore for safety reasons.) Our meal at Seb was a four-course affair with a wine pairing at each course The opening croquette was matched with a sparkling rosé asparagus and lobster paired with a riesling from Alsace The main was cod with potatoes and mushrooms and an oaky California chardonnay The next evening, in the old village, we went to Restaurant Patrick Bermand and you can see some of the action in the kitchen as you enter We were spoiled when it came to dessert: a tray that included homemade marshmallows mango ice cream and chocolate mousse for our group I’ll return to Mont-Tremblant once again Get the digital edition of Canadian Cycling Magazine Veuillez télécharger la version actualisée de l'un de ces navigateurs gratuits afin de pouvoir profiter pleinement de ce site All types of open fires are completely banned including outdoor firepits with spark screens throughout the region covered by the Mont-Tremblant Fire Department (SSIMT) as of noon today The ban is applicable throughout the entire Mont-Tremblant region as well as all of the neighbouring municipalities covered by the SSIMT This decision was made due to a high risk of bush and forest fires this weekend and throughout the next week The particularly high drought rate coupled with low precipitation over the short and mid-term threaten the loss of property forests and human life in the event of a wildland fire.  Only fireplaces fueled by propane or natural gas will be permitted until the ban is lifted.  The SSIMT is counting on everyone's cooperation in the affected areas to help ensure the safety of the population and the protection of the forest: "Having a campfire secretly right now is the worst idea you could have Please consider the serious consequences that could arise if you lose control of the fire I'm sure you don't want to be the one responsible for starting a forest fire with tragic consequences You will have plenty of opportunities to enjoy a campfire please be responsible!" said Mathieu Darmana Director of the Mont-Tremblant Fire Department.  Darmana also congratulated the responsible decision and solidarity of the neighbouring municipalities who responded positively to Mont-Tremblant's request to ban campfires in their respective areas.  A drop-off point is accessible via the rear entrance to the Samuel-Ouimet library SUMMER SCHEDULE (from the week of National Patriots' Day to the week of Labor Day) Registration for recreational activities (24/7): 311 (819 425-8614 outside of Mont-Tremblant) Please note that municipal offices will be closed from December 24 All services are open to the general public by appointment only. Consult the Administration section of the website for the number to reach Visitors should report to the front door of City Hall (accessible from the parking lot at the rear of the building) where an attendant will guide them All other municipal buildings remain closed until further notice It is recommended to use online services or to communicate with municipal services by phone or email the City invites you to continue using online services emails and phone calls to communicate with the municipal administration Our staff will be happy to answer you during business hours Truemetal vive grazie al suo pubblico. Quando compri qualcosa dai nostri link, potremmo guadagnare una commissione. Scopri di più BMG è lieta di annunciare la ristampa dei primi quattro album dei CONCEPTION storica progressive power metal band norvegese “In Your Multitude” e “Flow” con l’aggiunta di alcune bonus track saranno disponibili dal 9 settembre 2022 Questo materiale aggiuntivo fornisce una chiara idea di quello che hanno rappresentato i Conception in vari momenti della loro storia dimostrando l’evoluzione di alcune tracce che riconosciamo dalle loro versioni complete dell’album oltre a mostrare la band come una macchina inarrestabile in sede live Il commento del chitarrista Tore:“Mettere insieme la band e intraprendere insieme questo viaggio musicale è stata una vera avventura Con una comune voglia di esplorare e sviluppare noi stessi e la nostra musica ogni album mostra chiaramente le diverse fasi che abbiamo attraversato da un album all’altro Il commento di Roy:“C’è stata una forte richiesta per i nostri primi album nel corso di tutti questi anni e siamo estremamente felici che finalmente li stiamo rendendo disponibili in collaborazione con BMG Oltre a questo siamo molto entusiasti di pubblicare alcune demo davvero vecchie e canzoni inedite Questi primi demo dimostrano ancora più chiaramente il viaggio e lo sviluppo della band dall’inizio a dove siamo oggi Most of the music for The Last Sunset had been written by the time Roy Khan joined Conception which meant that he only had a month in which to rehearse before recording commenced both Tore and Roy realised that they had the beginnings of a powerful creative partnership made evident as they wrote the album’s title track together with the band financing everything themselves and creating their own record label – CSF Records – in the process Such a move demonstrated the band’s confidence in their music And reviewers were quick to voice their approval too: the title track was given significant airtime by Norway’s public broadcaster; in the UK BBC DJ Tommy Vance championed the band on The Friday Rock Show What reviewers of The Last Sunset picked up on was the way in which Conception approached progressive metal from a different angle Hard edged and aggressive riffing makes itself known from the off with the thumping opener ‘Building A Force’ and the dynamic fireworks of ‘Fairy’s Dance’ and the groove of ‘Bowed Down  With Sorrow’ are breathtaking but in the way that it never overcrowds the songs themselves Østby’s use of Latin music – such as the Flamenco parts in ‘War Of Hate’ – are an undeniable highlight of the album as well as Conception’s burgeoning reputation as a well-honed live outfit attracted the attention of the wider music industry notably Noise Records’ Karl Ulrich Walterbach who signed the band in April 1993 after receiving a demo of material written for Conception’s proposed second album Parallel Minds was a hugely important album for Conception While the band’s debut could be seen as a transitional recording Parallel Minds can be seen as the record where Conception truly defined themselves A bright production is married to a catchy collection of songs which both rock and uplift There’s heaviness aplenty from the outset with ‘Water Confines’ and the Judas Priest-esque splendour of ‘Roll The Fire’ while ‘Wolf’s Lair’ is a bona fide thumper Khan’s voice comes into its own across the record in anthems and ballads alike – it’s impossible to be unmoved by his performance in ‘The Promiser’ or in the epic closer Parallel Minds was released in November 1993 and it opened more doors for Conception bringing them to the attention of audiences around the world and the net result was their phenomenal third album In Your Multitude found Conception excavating new seams of emotion while simultaneously developing their progressive tendencies further without sacrificing either melody or emotion It is a complex album which warrants repeated listens particularly so during the album’s less frenetic parts such as in ‘Some Wounds’ and ‘Missionary Man’ Tore Østby’s flamenco influences take on a more fusion flavour here transforming a song like the monumental ‘A Million Gods’ into one of the finest progressive epics of the decade whether in a longer piece such as the title track or a hard hitter like ‘Under A Mourning Star’ One of the high points for progressive power metal in the ‘90s Having established a distinctive sound over the course of three albums Conception took their audience by surprise when they released Flow in 1997 The familiar Conception touchstones were all there – Khan’s beautiful vocals technical prowess and intriguing atmospheres – but the balance is more in the favour of melodic accessibility but a fantastic listen in its own right: ‘Gethsemane’ and ‘Cardinal Sin’ shine with the incorporation of some electro beats; Khan’s voice is as acrobatic as ever; ‘Tell Me When I’m Gone’ and ‘Would It Be The Same’ is a reminder that Conception still groove and rock hard concluded the first chapter of the Conception story The reaction to their reunion has been impressive underlining just how important Conception’s first four albums have become to fans of progressive and power metal The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Arroyo de la Miel has announced that the time of the English-language mass has been changed to protect the senior members of the community from the excessive heat of the summer Refreshments will be served in the church gardens after the service which is attended by members of the foreign community from Malaga to Gibraltar who has been the priest at the church since 2014 “All are very welcome to attend mass with our caring international community.” Comentar es una ventaja exclusiva para registrados