Dozens feared dead in predawn fire on diving boat off California coast
LOS ANGELES - The distress call crackled on Coast Guard radios around 3:15 a.m. Pacific time Monday.
"Mayday, mayday, mayday! ... Conception ... north side of Santa Cruz," a man yelled. "I can't breathe!" He said dozens were trapped on board the Conception, a 75-foot commercial dive boat that was engulfed in flames as it sat anchored near the shoreline of Santa Cruz Island.
Around that time, surviving crew members woke Shirley Hansen as they pounded frantically on the side of her nearby fishing boat, the Grape Escape. They had paddled over in a dinghy, some of them injured.
Two crew members jumped back into the dinghy in hopes of rescuing others.
