Coast Guard weighs safety reforms after fatal boat fire

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Coast Guard signaled Wednesday that it would undertake a series of recommended safety reforms for passenger vessels in the wake of a 2019 scuba dive boat fire that killed 34 people off the California coast, but a top transportation official cautioned that any changes might take years to enact.

The blaze broke out aboard the Conception during the final night of a three-day Labor Day weekend scuba diving excursion near Santa Cruz Island off Santa Barbara. The tragedy marked the deadliest marine disaster in California in modern history.

In December, Congress mandated that the Coast Guard review its regulations for small passenger vessels. The law, included in the National Defense Authorization Act, also added new requirements regarding fire detection and suppression.

In a letter dated Wednesday, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Scott Buschman said he agreed with seven recommendations suggested by the National Transportation Safety Board after the Conception tragedy. The recommendations include installing more comprehensive smoke detector systems, requiring safety management systems, upgrading emergency exists and making mandatory inspection checks on roving watches.

It's not clear when the recommendations could be put in place. Coast Guard officials did not respond Thursday to a request for comment. Buschman's letter was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

While investigators said they couldn’t determine what caused the fire because the boat burned and sank, they say it started toward the back of the main deck salon, where divers had plugged in phones, flashlights and other items with combustible lithium ion batteries. After the fire, the Coast Guard issued a bulletin recommending a limit on the unsupervised use of lithium ion batteries and extensive use of power strips and extension cords.

In...