The impression given by Indonesia’s biggest liveaboard operator of a smooth evacuation of the blazing Sea Safari VII on 2 May has been challenged by a British diver who was a guest onboard and, as a trained firefighter and SAR pilot, well-placed to judge how the incident played out.
Mike Day has worked as a search and rescue pilot for the past 10 years and, as a Royal Navy officer for 21 years, says he also conducted ship’s firefighting and sea-survival training.
This included training as a firefighting and damage-control manager for his role as aviation officer in charge of 21 firefighters on an assault warship multi-aircraft flight deck. His knowledge of firefighting goes even deeper, because supplying marine fire-alarm and fire-suppression systems is the family business.
Day has told Divernet that, based on what he witnessed when Sea Safari VII caught fire, the standard of firefighting equipment, command, leadership, training and competence among the boat’s staff was “extremely low to non-existent”.
The diver was on holiday in Indonesia with his partner. She had also undertaken sea-survival training.
Sea Safari VII had 14 double cabins, and the couple were among 14 divers staying at the Scuba Junkie Komodo resort who had been booked onto the liveaboard for a six-night Komodo National Park tour, accompanied by 14 Scuba Junkie dive-staff. The boat’s own complement were estimated to number a further 14.
The liveaboard was the biggest of the five ironwood-hulled phinisi schooners run by Bali-based Sea Safari Cruises, which has been operating since 1989.
The fire broke out near its base at Labuan Bajo on Flores, after the group had spent their first night on board and carried out an early-morning dive.
Significant black smoke
The operator’s statement about the incident, as reported on Divernet on 4 May, revealed little more than that the vessel was “engulfed in a fire” and that “all guests and crew were safely evacuated”. It had thanked both guests and crew for handling the emergency “with calmness and co-operation” – but Day has now provided a more comprehensive account.
He was in the dining-room at around 8.30am following the dive when he says he heard panicked voices and saw “significant” black smoke outside on the starboard side-ladder from the weather-deck.
As Day’s partner spotted flames, he overheard one of the crew say ‘Fire’, but says that because neither the captain nor crew seemed to be taking any steps to raise the alarm he had followed his own training and shouted ‘Fire!’ loudly and repeatedly.
The couple started to make their way forward along the port-side weather-deck away from the smoke to the dive-deck, directing other divers in the group to go the same way. On their way, Day’s partner located the life-jackets from the dining-room and handed them out to other guests.
“On arrival at the dive-deck, the volume of smoke indicated to me that the vessel was already lost and we would have to abandon ship,” says Day.
“Using my judgment and experience and before conditions became too bad, my partner and I collected essential items from our cabin immediately adjacent to the dive-deck on the safer port side. The only guidance to do so was from me.”
No formal roll-call was carried out by either the liveaboard or Scuba Junkie staff, says Day, and no form of alarm or call to an assembly point was heard, though Scuba Junkie staff and the liveaboard’s cruise director can be seen on video footage calmly packing dive-gear close to where the guests were assembling.
“In my opinion at this point both the Scuba Junkie guests and staff were passengers on a chartered vessel and under its care,” says Day. “Neither of us heard any instruction from the Scuba Junkie staff or the Sea Safari VII cruise director or staff for the entire duration of the incident.”
Taking to the life-rafts
Day and his partner tried to reassure other passengers as well as liveaboard crew-members who, he says, “were terrified”. Crew deployed two life-rafts on the upwind port side as three tenders, two from Sea Safari VII and one from elsewhere, stood by. Even as the smoke intensified and with flames visible, Day says that no formal order to abandon ship was ever given.
“One of the Sea Safari VII crew shouted ‘Jump!’ and people started entering the water from the port rail,” he says. “There was shouting in Indonesian, but not in English or any other language.
“We witnessed the cruise director jump directly from Sea Safari VII into a life-raft. This is against all training, as it can damage the raft and cause injury. This was the person responsible for our safety, who hadn’t spoken to us since commencement of the incident.”
Day’s partner jumped into the water, climbed into the same life-raft and helped to pull others onboard. She told Day that the cruise director did not appear to be giving any instructions, so she had seen to it that people already onboard made space for others to get in.
“I entered the water, and remained outside the life-raft by the entry-ladder to assist other survivors in locating and boarding the raft,” says Day. Then the raft’s line was severed by Sea Safari VII, and it started to drift towards the liveaboard’s by-now blazing stern.
Day directed an approaching tender to take the cut line and tow the raft to safety. “I had to order the tender crew to tie on the painter, as he was attempting to hold it in his hand and it was slipping away from him. Without my intervention it is undoubted that the life-raft would have entered the fire.”
Day then stayed in the water by the ladder to co-ordinate people swimming towards the line, directing them to pull themselves towards the life-raft.
“I also had to order the people already in the raft to assist those in the water to board the raft including, lastly, myself.
“Once on board the raft I saw that it was pointless to conduct a roll-call and watched to ensure that we remained clear of Sea Safari VII. My partner provided emotional support to the more distressed survivors.”
Back onshore
After some five minutes the occupants of the life-raft were transferred to a Scuba Junkie dive day-boat. Another boat then approached and further crew and one other passenger also boarded the day-boat.
“One crew-member with severe burns to the hands was transferred to a fast rescue vessel and we made our way from the scene to the Scuba Junkie resort,” says Day, who had strained his back during the evacuation.
“Some offers of water were made by the day-boat crew, but my partner co-ordinated sharing water with the rest of the survivors. We provided our personal sunscreen – no offers were made from the crew.”
From the resort, the divers were taken on to the Laprima Hotel in Labuan Bajo. “Sea Safari Cruises devolved all responsibility,” says Day. “No assistance, no compensation.”
However, he emphasised that Scuba Junkie “has been brilliant with everyone. They care and they take safety very seriously but were let down by cost-cutting by Sea Safari. I will dive with Scuba Junkie again.”
The diver says that at the initial onboard briefing a safety video had been shown, and the cruise director had asked all guests to fetch their life-jackets from their cabins to ensure that they fitted, although he and his partner had been the only ones to do so, and in the event the fit was not checked. There had been no briefing or tour of escape routes or nominated assembly points, according to Day.
“The safety and well-being of our guests and crew are of paramount importance to us,” stated Sea Safari Cruises following the fire. “We are taking every necessary step to investigate the incident thoroughly and to implement any measures required to prevent such occurrences in the future.”
Day says it had been noted by guests that the liveaboard’s nitrox blending system was located in an encloed area, raising the possibility that pure oxygen could have been present inside an engine-room that appeared to have no fixed fire-suppression system.
Divernet has put the criticisms raised by the divers’ experience of the evacuation to Sea Safari Cruises, but it has yet to respond.
The fire is the third diving liveaboard blaze to occur in Indonesia in the past six months, following incidents involving Indo Siren in November and Oceanic in March, both in Raja Ampat.
Also on Divernet: Oceanic liveaboard catches fire in Indonesia, Survivors speak after fatal Red Sea dive-boat fire, Dive-boat blazed, whale shark grabbed in Thailand, Blaze consumes Indo Siren liveaboard
