What We Know About the Catastrophic California Boat Fire

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/us/california-scuba-boat-fire.html

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Today, we’re starting with an update on the horrific fire that engulfed a scuba diving boat near Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands early on Monday, most likely killing dozens of people.

The search-and-recovery effort continued through Labor Day, transforming a picturesque divers’ paradise — an area that The Ventura County Star described as “the Galápagos of North America” — into the site of one of California’s worst maritime disasters.

Here’s what we know so far:

What happened

In the predawn hours on Monday, a haunting distress call was apparently made from a commercial scuba diving vessel named the Conception.

Bob and Shirley Hansen, the owners of a fishing boat that was moored overnight several hundred feet from the Conception, said they saw fire shooting through holes in the vessel and explosions “every few beats.”

Five of six crew members, shivering and some in underwear, made it to the Hansens’ boat. The 33 passengers aboard the Conception are believed to have been asleep below deck when the fire broke out.

Twenty people were confirmed dead as of late Monday and 14 were missing.

The Conception’s three-day diving excursion had been set to end today.

The boat

The Conception, a 75-foot vessel, was based in Santa Barbara and operated by Truth Aquatics.

According to a floor plan of the boat, passengers slept in one room in bunk beds below deck. Narrow staircases from the sleeping quarters and showers led to the galley.

Officials said the vessel was in full compliance with inspections and other regulations.

Still, Sheriff Bill Brown of Santa Barbara County said he didn’t know whether the boat had any kind of “black box,” like an airplane might have.

What’s next

The authorities said the search efforts would continue, even in difficult conditions. The boat was unstable and tides were moving it around, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, Capt. Monica Rochester, said.

Captain Rochester said that, given the circumstances, “I think we should all be prepared to move into the worst outcome.”

Investigators will continue to try to determine the cause of the fire, which was unclear as of late Monday.

Please help us put this tragedy into context.

Have you ever been on an overnight scuba diving trip off the California coast? What was it like? Did the sleeping arrangements or any other aspects of the trip give you pause? Have you ever been a crew member on a similar trip?

Tell us about it at CAToday@nytimes.com.

[Read the full story.]

For Labor Day, I asked my colleague Noam Scheiber, who covers workers and the workplace, to tell us more about the battle over labor in California’s gig economy — which could have big implications for the rest of the nation.

Here’s his dispatch from the front lines of the fight:

“As soon as you let me know,” said Tyler Sandness, a driver and organizer with the group Rideshare Drivers United, “I’ll get you on the ‘yes’ list.”

It was late Wednesday morning, and Mr. Sandness was urging fellow drivers to join a bus trip that the group is leading to Sacramento next week, to lobby for a bill that would require Uber and Lyft to treat them as employees.

Mr. Sandness seemed pleased with the call. “Getting him to talk about how many hours he spends in the car, how it must be hell on his back and body,” he said, “it got him to soften up a little bit.”

Rideshare Drivers United is one of dozens of groups that will descend on the state capital next week to weigh in on the measure, known as Assembly Bill 5, when the legislative session enters its homestretch.

If it passes, the bill would guarantee employment protections, like a minimum wage and unemployment insurance, to millions of workers currently classified as independent contractors across the state, including construction workers, cable installers and, of course, drivers.

[Read Noam’s story about how Los Angeles has become a hub for grass-roots labor activism.]

But many more people than that may ultimately be affected. Veena Dubal, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, said that policymakers, labor leaders and academics around the world were closely following the legislation and may model their own gig worker laws on whatever California decides.

“It could have global implications,” Professor Dubal said, citing a recent conversation with an official at a large German union.

The State Legislature has until next week to act on the measure this year, which could include passing it, rejecting it or carving it full of loopholes.

Certainly the implications have not been lost on Uber and Lyft, which on Thursday said they would jointly spend $60 million funding a ballot initiative to exempt their drivers from employment status if the Legislature doesn’t do so first. The delivery platform DoorDash later announced that it would kick in $30 million as well.

[Read more about how the fight over Uber and Lyft drivers’ rights split labor.]

Driver groups like Rideshare Drivers United are trying to make up with grit what they lack in financial heft. The group is scheduled to depart the Los Angeles area for Sacramento, nearly 400 miles to the north, next Tuesday around midnight. They hope to return by about 10 p.m. the following day.

Showers will most likely be scarce, as will a good night’s sleep. But the group is offering drivers at least one perk: Free parking near the Burbank airport while they trek north.

And there will also be the satisfaction of victory should their personal lobbying help push the measure across the finish line. “If it passes, we all call in sick,” Mr. Sandness said at the group’s weekly meeting Wednesday evening. “Because we’re employees, baby.”

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The Federal Trade Commission voted to fine Google $150 million to $200 million to settle accusations that YouTube illegally collected information about children. It would be the biggest civil penalty ever gotten by the F.T.C. in a children’s privacy case. [The New York Times]

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House plant obsession may be ascribed to millennials, but the trend had its first go-round in the 1970s, when a Melrose Avenue plant shop handed out an early synth album that was supposed to help plants grow. [Los Angeles Magazine]

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.