SANTA BARBARA — Ever since a massive fire claimed 34 lives aboard the Conception, Celine Nasser has barely had a break.
The 21-year-old has been fielding a flood of phone calls at Truth Aquatics, the company that operated the ill-fated diving boat. From its site in Santa Barbara Harbor, Nasser has been canceling boat trips and redirecting families of victims who call in to ask for information.
As she does this, she mourns.
Her friend, Allie Kurtz, 26, is the only one of the boat’s six crew members to perish in the tragedy. Nasser met Kurtz’s family this week, and instead of being angry, she said, they thanked the staff for giving their daughter an experience that she loved.
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“When I met Allie’s family, it sunk in,” said Nasser.
Santa Barbara resident Britany Martin and her 2-year-old son Theo at the memorial.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Coast Guard officials have recovered the bodies of 33 people who died in a massive fire that started as the 75-foot vessel was anchored off the coast of Santa Cruz Island on Labor Day. As of Wednesday, one person was still missing, but rescuers have said there are no signs of additional survivors.
The fire has left Santa Barbara residents grieving. Many have ties to the tight-knit maritime community. Some wrestle with associating a tragedy of such magnitude with diving, an activity that brought such joy.
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Throughout the day on Wednesday, hundreds paused to pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in Santa Barbara Harbor just yards away from the space where the Conception would usually be docked.
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.
Sept. 11, 2019
Thirty-four candles were lined up in a row, representing each victim of the fire. Someone had placed a framed copy of the poem “The Ocean” by Nathaniel Hawthorne next to a photograph showing a man with his arm around Kurtz. “I love you Allie – and you know I always will! I’ll miss you forever,” it read.
“The whole city is depressed,” said Mark Bright, a local who stopped by on his bicycle route.
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Local residents have tried to lend support in small ways. CJ Andelman, 12, arrived at the memorial with a harp. Onlookers filmed her as she sat on a bench and played “You Are My Sunshine” and “Silent Night.”
Her mother, Courtney, said her daughters learned how to scuba dive last December and are homeschooled because the family spends much of the year doing adventure sports and traveling.
“We’re part of the community and it could have been us,” she said.
Officials have recovered the bodies of 33 people who died in a massive fire aboard the Conception. One person remains missing.
Sept. 4, 2019
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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)
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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)
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A mourner pays her respects at a memorial made up of scuba tanks, one for each victim, during the vigil at Chase Palm Park on Friday night. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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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)
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Glen Fritzler, left, 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)
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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)
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Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, with other officials, 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. (Luis Sinco)
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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)
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Some of the thousands of people join a vigil on the beach in honor of those who lost their lives in the Conception boat fire along the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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Allison Metchikof, left and Rachel Levi, right, embrace during a vigil hosted by Deep Blue Scuba Center in honor of the victims aboard the dive ship Conception in Long Beach. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
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Divers and support crews from many agencies work the scene of the dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County)
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The derrick barge Salta Verde off the coast of Santa Cruz Island upon its arrival late Wednesday at the scene of the wreck of the dive boat Conception. (U.S. Coast Guard)
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The search area where divers were looking through the sunken wreckage of the Conception is outlined. (KABC-TV)
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Divers and support crews from many agencies work the scene of the dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County)
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The owners of Truth Aquatics and the dive boat Conception, Glen and Dana Fritzler, right, and their daughter Ashley, left, during an interview in Santa Barbara, Calif. (KEYT-TV)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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CJ Andelman, 12, of Santa Barbara, 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)
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Jennifer Homendy, center, 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)
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Santa Barbara resident Britany Martin lets her son Theo, 2, place flowers at a growing memorial to the fire victims at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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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)
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A memorial is growing at Santa Barbara Harbor, where the dive boat Conception was based. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Olivia, left, sister of a female crew member thought to have died in the boat fire, hugs Jennifer Stafford, who placed flowers at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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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)
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After hanging a dive flag in memory of the victims, JJ Lambert, 38, who said he had dived off the Conception as a kid, is hugged by Jenna Marsala, 33, at Santa Barbara Harbor near where the Conception departed. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Orlando Aldana places candles, one for each person aboard the Conception, at a makeshift memorial at Sea Landing in the Santa Barbara Harbor. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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At Santa Barbara Harbor, James Miranda kneels in prayer. “It’s a very sad moment for California,” he said. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Rescuers and law enforcement, on a boat docked at Santa Barbara Harbor, move a body that was recovered after Monday’s deadly boat fire. (Daniel Dreifuss / Associated Press)
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The body of a victim is moved at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Daniel Dreifuss / Associated Press)
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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 )
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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)
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Firefighters arrive back at the U.S. Coast Guard Station after battling the fire. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
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The captain of the Grape Escape boat, which rescued survivors of a boat fire off the Channel Islands, looks on near the U.S. Coast Guard Station Channel Islands in Oxnard on Monday. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
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Firefighters battle a blaze on a dive boat near Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County Fire Department)
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A diving boat fire near Santa Cruz Island off the Ventura County coast. (Santa Barbara County Fire Department)
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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)
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The dive boat Conception seen at dawn Monday burns off Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County Fire)
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Conception, the boat that caught fire off Ventura County. (Truth Aquatics)
Carla McClure, 59, stopped by the memorial during her morning run. She said she hadn’t been able to sleep after the disaster, disturbed by how no passengers were able to survive.
“I’m starting to hear bits and pieces about the people,” she said. “The whole thing is so tragic — I don’t know how to cope with it.”
Storeowners at the harbor are trying to process their grief. Lisa Clagg, who has owned a small market by the docks since 1985, said she has felt overwhelmed by the presence of dozens of law enforcement officials who have come to conduct search and rescue operations.
Five crew members survived the fire aboard the diving boat the Conception early Monday because they were stationed on the deck rather than below it, officials said.
Sept. 3, 2019
“My heart goes out to everybody,” she said. “All of this is a reminder of how life is so fragile.”
Many locals have come to the defense of Truth Aquatics, which has a respected reputation in the diving community. Dave Huebner, 35, a free diver in Santa Barbara who has worked on the Conception as a deckhand, said that some of the best times of his life were helping take scuba divers, kayakers and others out to sea.
He is disturbed by suggestions that the tragedy was a result of any failure by Truth Aquatics to follow safety procedures. The U.S. Coast Guard has said the Conception had passed all recent inspections.
Dee Dee Lane places handmade Rosaries around candles for each of the 34 victims of the dive boat Conception.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
“You can look left and right before you cross the street and still get hit by a bus. I think it’s like that,” he said. “I do know the group and the boat. ... They’re not trying to cut corners.”
He heard the news of the fire around 8:30 on Monday morning from a group chat for a free diving club he belongs to.
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.
Sept. 2, 2019
Nasser said that besides the phone calls she has received from family members, people from all across the U.S. have been calling to offer their support to the company. Locals have also been bringing staff members food.
Leila Miller is a former foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times based in Mexico City. She joined the newsroom in 2018, 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.
