Party-Goers Tell of Relief, Doubts After Yacht Fire

They hovered at one another’s desks and in break rooms to recount how a festive holiday office party on a chartered yacht had turned into an inferno at sea. And in a special staff meeting, they hashed out their feelings about those frightening moments when they jumped from the boat and swam to a dock to save their lives.

At the posh high-rise offices of Trust Co. of the West in downtown Los Angeles, employees spent Monday struggling to cope with the fire that engulfed their Christmas dinner cruise over the weekend, forcing many of the 64 passengers and seven crew members into the cold waters of Marina del Rey.

For most, the initial shock of the incident had passed. They thanked their lucky stars that no one was killed and that most of the injuries were minor. But any feelings of thanks seemed to fade amid nagging questions, even as investigators from the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board descended on the charred wreckage of the 70-foot Sundowner yacht to search for answers.

“Why did we have to face a life-and-death situation? How could this have happened?” asked the company’s chief financial officer, David Sandie, who plunged into the cold water wearing a sport coat and jeans. “Why did we have to swim for our lives like we did?”

Sandie and his colleagues say they were forced to flee the yacht without any evacuation instructions and without life preservers.

But the owners of Sundowner Yacht Charters defended their crew’s handling of the incident. Michael Derem, a partner in the company who was not on board during the cruise, said there was too little time to distribute life jackets because the flames burned through the top decks of the wooden yacht minutes after the fire erupted about 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

Instead, he said, crew members followed Coast Guard procedures and tossed preservers into the water.

“The key thing is that the captain and crew and staff performed like heroes,” Derem said.

Coast Guard officials said the Sundowner had been inspected within the last two weeks and had enough life jackets on board to accommodate 149 passengers. Just last month, the Sundowner crew practiced its fire drill procedures as part of a Coast Guard inspection.

“There are indications that the fire spread rapidly,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Steinhilber of the Coast Guard. “The crew didn’t have time [to distribute the life jackets], and the crew elected to get the passengers off quickly.”

Coast Guard officials said an initial investigation revealed that the fire was caused by flames from the 1971 vessel’s smokestack.

Safety board investigators arrived at the scene Sunday night and joined the probe of the fire, which left five people with first- and second-degree burns and one with a sprained back. One Trust Co. employee was admitted to a local hospital Monday to undergo reconstructive surgery as a result of burns.

Safety board accident investigator William Fannon said it will take his four-person team a week to investigate the accident. They plan plan to interview Trust Co. employees this morning at the firm’s downtown office.

Investigators also are looking at the Sundowner’s maintenance records and safety history and the crew’s training. Because of Monday’s rain, the team was not able to get a good look at the Sundowner wreckage, particularly in the engine room and the smokestack.

The Trust Co. of the West had chartered the Sundowner for a holiday office party for its finance and administrative staff. The night called for a casual atmosphere of quiet Christmas music and a dinner of chicken marsala, followed by dancing to a disc jockey’s tunes.

All was going as planned until about halfway through the four-hour cruise, when the crew noticed sparks flying from the boat’s smokestack. The crew tried to snuff out the blaze with a fire extinguisher, but the flames became too intense.

Within minutes, the fire had surged down through the ceiling of the room where guests were about to eat dessert.

“It was like ‘Backdraft,’ the movie,” recalled one employee. “It was very terrifying. Flames burned through the ceiling.”

As the captain maneuvered the boat toward a floating dock about 60 yards from land, most of the guests made their way down a stairway--some on their hands and knees--to a lower floor where there was an exit. The boat had pulled alongside the dock, allowing some guests to step to safety. But then the boat began to drift, forcing most of the passengers to jump and swim to the dock, which also caught fire.

“I didn’t believe that I had to jump into the water,” Sandie recalled. “I didn’t know how serious the situation was until I jumped out of the boat, swam to the dock and could look back at this burning inferno.”

Passengers who couldn’t swim were helped into the water by their colleagues and spouses as flames erupted on all sides of the boat. Some guests on the dock were burned as they helped their fellow employees out of the water.

A Coast Guard vessel and two private boats eventually picked up the stranded guests and transported them to a private yacht club in the marina.

The incident left many Trust Co. employees shaken. And on Monday, the company took steps to deal with the trauma. Employees gathered in a staff meeting to discuss their feelings. And executives will bring in a psychologist today so people can talk in group sessions or in private.

“Every time I close my eyes, I see flames,” one worker said.

Sandie said Trust Co. was planning to compensate all guests who suffered losses by paying to restore clothing and other items ruined by the salt water.

Company officials said the cruise was the first they had chartered in the marina for a holiday party. And some said it would be the last.

“I think people will think twice about having a holiday party at sea,” Sandie said. “Even though you think a cruise in the marina would be a tame event, you can’t take anything for granted.”