California boat fire: Apple employees among those believed dead
Apple employees Steve Salika and Dan Garcia were on board the Conception when it caught fire and sank, a company spokesperson said Wednesday.
SANTA CRUZ — Two Apple employees are among the 34 people believed dead in the fire aboard a dive boat off the coast of Southern California, a company official confirmed Wednesday morning.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said Tuesday that most of the people who died in the disaster were from Santa Cruz and the Bay Area.
None have been officially identified, but family and friends of several victims have named loved ones who were aboard the boat Conception and are now presumed dead.
Deirdre O’Brien, a senior vice president at Apple, said Wednesday that Steve Salika, who had been with the company for 30 years, was one of the passengers.
Salika was on the diving trip with his wife, Diana Adamic, and their daughter, Tia Salika, who was celebrating her 17th birthday. O’Brien said Salika and Adamic met while working at Apple.
O’Brien identified Dan Garcia as another employee on the boat, saying he was passionate about his job at Apple and loved diving.
“It’s with very heavy hearts that we mourn the passing of two of our colleagues in the tragic boat fire that took place Labor Day weekend,” O’Brien said. “We share our deepest condolences with their families and friends.
“Both leave many friends behind and will be deeply missed,” she added.
Local and federal authorities are continuing their investigation into what caused the fire that officials said quickly consumed the boat around 3:30 a.m. Monday, trapping passengers in their sleeping quarters and preventing all but a handful of crew members from escaping.
Coast Guard crews called off their search for survivors Tuesday morning.
Authorities are expected to provide an update on their investigation and the effort to recover remains later Wednesday.
NTSB media briefing Tuesday on California dive vessel fire. https://t.co/jUbbdEk3Pd
— NTSB_Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) September 4, 2019
At a press conference Tuesday, Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board said investigators planned to interview the surviving crew members, first responders and officials from the companies involved in the diving trip as they determine how the deadly fire unfolded and what can be learned from it.
The boat was owned by the Santa Barbara company Truth Aquatics, and was chartered by Santa Cruz-based Worldwide Diving Adventures.
Homendy said the NTSB typically issues a preliminary report about disasters such as this one within 10 days, though it will take one to two years to produce a final report.
“I am 100 percent confident that our investigators will determine the cause of this fire, why it occurred, how it occurred and what is needed to prevent it from happening again,” Homendy said.
Check back for updates.