The evolving story of the Conception dive boat got another cupful of heartbreak Thursday morning when the Los Angeles Times broke the story that the FBI had a video recording from the bunkroom where 34 people died when a fire broke out on September 2, 2019.
Some family members of the victims who had viewed the video spoke with Times reporter Richard Winton about what they’d seen: Apparently 24 seconds long, the video showed smoke gathering along the ceiling and beginning to fill the room as a fire alarm sounds. The scene is calm initially but becomes increasingly desperate before cutting out.
The investigation reports state a fire had quickly spread in the galley salon overhead. The bunkroom was belowdecks, with the two ways out: a set of stairs and a narrow escape hatch, both ending at the galley engulfed in flames. The captain, Jerry Boylan, had sent a mayday call but had abandoned ship with the crew.