26 Missing After Dive Boat Catches Fire, 8 Bodies Found

[Update: Sept. 2, 2019, 5:06 p.m.]  Santa Barbara’s Sheriff Bill Brown announced Monday afternoon that four bodies had been recovered from the boat named the Conception, which caught fire off the north shore of Santa Cruz Island early this morning. The victims were taken to the Coroner’s morgue, unidentified to the public until their families could be notified. Four bodies were also identified near the remains of the boat, which has apparently overturned in the tides today.

In a press conference Monday afternoon, Brown said the Conception had left Santa Barbara Harbor
early Saturday morning and was set to return Monday evening. It has been widely
reported in the media and among the dive community that the charter was a Labor
Day weekend dive at multiple of the Channel Islands.

The Coast Guard has corrected the number onboard as 39, not
38. Six crew members were onboard, not five, and one is missing; five were
rescued by a nearby boat. According to KEYT reporting, the boat was the Grape Escape.