3 Missing After Boat Catches Fire

Coast Guard cutters and helicopters searched the waters between Long Beach and Catalina Island on Sunday for three people who were aboard a 65-foot pleasure boat that caught fire about 20 miles off the coast of Long Beach.

The missing people--identified only as a 45-year-old man, a 35-year-old woman and an 8-year-old boy--are all from Van Nuys, authorities said.

Coast Guard officials said they received an early-morning distress call from a power boat named Sundancer out of Marina del Rey, but they lost contact before the caller could describe the location.

A short time later, a helicopter on a medical flight to Catalina spotted flames from the boat and directed rescue teams to the area. But when the Coast Guard reached the burned vessel about 4:20 a.m., there was nobody aboard.

Coast Guard spokesman William Atkinson said rescue teams recovered a 27-person life raft and a partially burned dinghy from the site. He added, however, that the Sundancer also carried a second life raft, which was missing.

Officials said the Sundancer had burned to the waterline, but it did not sink.

Atkinson declined to release names of the missing persons, saying they will not be identified until the Coast Guard has concluded its search. He added that the boat is owned by a corporation, which he also declined to identify.

The search was scheduled to stop Sunday night and then start again at 6 a.m. today, Atkinson said.

He added that the Coast Guard had not received any calls Sunday reporting missing people.