Four bodies recovered from Santa Cruz boat fire

Authorities have recovered at least four bodies from the fatal Santa Cruz boat fire — and they’ve located another four on the bottom of the ocean floor, according to officials.

Dozens more are feared dead, with local police suspecting that their remains are still trapped inside the sunken vessel.

“This is probably the worst case scenario you can have,” said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown at a press conference on Monday night.

Local officials provided an update on the recovery efforts, saying they had only come across eight victims so far.

“We have four actual bodies that have been delivered to our Coroner’s Bureau,” Brown said. Four others have been “spotted” on the ocean floor “in close proximity of the vessel.”

“[The boat] is upside down in relatively shallow water,” Brown explained, noting how receding tides were causing it to sway and move, making the scuba diving ship “unstable.”

“We’re unsure when we will be able to recover those bodies,” he told reporters.

Five members of the boat’s crew were rescued after the incident was first reported. The remaining 26 people who were on board were still missing as of 4:30 p.m. local time.

Sheriff Brown said authorities would be working throughout the night and into the morning to locate any possible victims.

“We’re doing everything that we can to see if anyone could have survived this,” Brown said, repeatedly referring to the incident and rescue efforts as the “worst” possible scenario.

“It’s a vessel on the open sea in the middle of the night, its 3:30 in the morning … The sleeping compartment is on the bottom of the ship and they would be sound asleep … You couldn’t ask for a worse situation.”

Capt. Monica Rochester, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, told reporters that the ship — dubbed the Conception — was “in full compliance with regulatory requirements.”

“We will search all the way through [the night],” she said. “But we should all be prepared to move to the worst outcome.”

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