Three passengers aboard Monday’s doomed California boat celebrated their birthdays hours before the fatal fire broke out — including a 17-year-old girl who was there with her parents, according to a report.
One of the boat’s crew members wept as he talked about the birthday celebrations to a rescuer, the LA Times said.
Another surviving worker who had been aboard the tourist diving boat Conception said his girlfriend was among those trapped below deck when it caught fire in the pre-dawn hours off the coast of Santa Cruz Island, according to rescuers Bob and Shirley Hansen.
All 34 passengers on the holiday excursion are feared dead, while the four crew members and captain escaped.
The crew was awake and on the bridge as their passengers slept below — some in cramped three-high bunks — when the blaze broke out. The crew and captain ended up jumping off the flaming vessel into the water.
They were able to climb into a nearby rubber dingy from the vessel and paddled to the Hansens’ 60-foot fishing boat, the Grape Escape, about 200 yards away, according to the Times.
The Hansens said they heard pounding on the side of their craft — and were greeted by five men, including some in their underwear.
Shirley Hansen said one of the workers was frantic because his girlfriend had been below deck on the boat, so two of the men went back in the dingy to look for survivors.
They found none, she said.