DNA USED TO ID 34 FIRE VICTIMS.

SANTA BARBARA • California emergency workers were using a DNA analysis technique primarily employed in war zones and crime scenes to quickly identify the burned remains of 34 people killed when a fast-moving fire trapped them on a scuba diving boat.

Recovery crews have found the remains of 20 victims — 11 female and nine male — and were working to retrieve the bodies of 14 others from the charred, sunken wreckage of the Conception.

A fire broke out on the 23-metre vessel before dawn off Santa Cruz Island on Monday.

The boat captain was among five members of the six-person crew who were above deck on the bridge and managed to escape in an inflatable boat.

The single crew member who did not survive appeared to have been sleeping below deck with the passengers when the fire broke out.

An investigation was underway to determine the cause of the blaze.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a news conference on Tuesday that a team from California’s Department of Justice was gathering DNA samples from family members and employing a rapid DNA analysis tool to positively identify the victims.

“There was an extraordinarily hot fire and the bodies do exhibit signs of extreme thermal damage,” Brown said.

The same DNA analysis tool, he said, was instrumental in identifying victims in the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in state history that killed at least 85 people about 280 km northeast of San Francisco in 2018.

That tool is primarily employed in war zones to generate results in about two hours. It is effective in identifying DNA from burned remains and bone fragments and has also been used by police to identify sexual assault suspects and by the United Nations in child trafficking cases.

Traditional DNA analysis techniques require samples to be shipped to a laboratory and take weeks to produce a match.

In addition, traditional tools tend to fail when extreme heat damages tissue samples.

“This system is capable of doing it much more rapidly, but I can’t give you an exact amount of time. It will be done as rapidly as possible,” Brown said.

Investigators have received more than 100 calls from family and friends who believe their loved ones were on the Conception. They are comparing the information from calls with the vessel’s passenger list since many if not all will need to be identified through DNA analysis, Brown said.

Victims range in age from 17 to 60 and most are from the Santa Cruz and San Jose area, authorities said.