All six crew members were asleep when a fire broke out on the dive boat Conception, killing 34 people off Santa Cruz Island on Labor Day, according to a preliminary report issued Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

If so, that would be a violation of Coast Guard regulations requiring a roving patrol to keep passengers safe.

Also Thursday, the final victims’ names were released and the boat was raised from the ocean floor to be brought to the mainland for investigation.

Investigation:Probe to find cause of boat fire could lead to criminal case

The NTSB’s preliminary report does not pinpoint the predawn fire’s cause, but it does point out a potential problem in its finding that crew members were asleep.

“The Conception was required to have a member of the vessel’s crew designated as a roving patrol at all times, whether or not the vessel is underway, when the passengers’ bunks are occupied,” said Lt. Amy Midgett, a spokesman for Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., via email Thursday.

Midgett referred to rules covering small passenger vessels. The entry on watchmen stipulates that boats with overnight passengers “shall have” a suitable number of watchmen patrolling at night “to guard against, and give alarm in case of, a fire, man overboard, or other dangerous situation.”

The Conception, owned by Truth Aquatics and operated out of Santa Barbara Harbor, had been on a three-day diving excursion for the Labor Day weekend.

The 33 passengers and one crew member who died were apparently trapped by flames below deck.

Interviews with the survivors

Five crew members survived. The NTSB report refers to initial interviews with three of them.

The crew noticed no mechanical or electrical issues on board the 75-foot commercial diving vessel, the report states. The boat, built in 1981 of wood and fiberglass, had three levels. A sun deck with the wheelhouse and crew rooms was up top. The main deck housed the galley and salon. The bunkroom for passengers was in the lower deck in the hull, where a shower room, the engine room and tanks were also located.

“At the time of the fire, five crewmembers were asleep in berths behind the wheelhouse, and one crewmember was asleep in the bunkroom,” the report states.

The crew first became aware of the fire when a crew member sleeping in the upper berth was “awakened by a noise” and got up to investigate, according to the NTSB’s preliminary account.

He saw a fire “rising up from the salon compartment below,” the report states. He alerted the other crew members. At 3:14 a.m., the captain radioed a distress call to the Coast Guard.

As has been previously reported, crew members said the intensity of the fire prevented them from getting inside the salon and galley area, which led down to the bunk area. The five surviving crew members jumped overboard.

Crew members described seeing the rear portion of the galley fully engulfed by flames, with thick smoke choking the galley’s forward end.

Mourning:At memorial for boat fire victims, tragedy moves even strangers to tears

The captain and two crew members swam to the rear of the boat, reboarded and opened the engine room hatch. They saw no fire there, the report stated.

The passenger bunk area was accessed by a stairway leading to the galley. An escape hatch also opened to the galley area.

A preliminary report is generally a summary of early findings that relies on interviews, inspection documents and other records, and a review of current maritime rules and regulations, former NTSB Chairman James Hall told The Associated Press before the document was released.

As for the fire’s cause, NTSB member Jennifer Homendy has said investigators are looking at several factors, including how batteries and electronics were stored and charged. They will also look into how the crew was trained and what crew members were doing at the time of the fire.

The boat’s design will also come under scrutiny, particularly whether the bunkroom escape hatch was adequate.

The NTSB may issue urgent safety recommendations — it does not have authority to make binding regulations — between the preliminary report and the final one, which could take more than a year to complete.

The U.S. Coast Guard has already issued a safety bulletin in the aftermath of the Conception tragedy. The bulletin advised boat crews to review emergency duties, make sure firefighting and lifesaving equipment is functional and consider limiting unsupervised charging of lithium-ion batteries and extensive use of power strips, among other things.

Numerous agencies are investigating the deadly fire, after which the boat sank upside-down.

A criminal investigation kicked off Sunday when authorities served search warrants at the Sea Landing facility where Truth Aquatics operates at Santa Barbara Harbor. The company’s two remaining boats, Vision and Truth, have also been searched.

And on Wednesday, the Coast Guard launched its highest possible investigation, convening a marine board of investigation that will look into all aspects of the Labor Day incident.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has brought in a special team to investigate the fire.

All victims identified

Found Wednesday, the last remains recovered were those of the youngest person on board, 16-year-old Berenice Felipe, of Santa Cruz, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.

Her remains were found in a cove adjacent to and just west of Platts Harbor, where the boat had been anchored. Wednesday’s discovery was made during a search conducted by a San Luis Obispo County dive team and supported by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Brown said.

Conception dive boat victims:Know their names, learn their stories

“No one has been left behind,” Brown said during a Santa Barbara briefing Thursday afternoon where he read aloud the names of all 34 victims:

Kaustubh Nirmal, 33, Stamford, Connecticut; Sanjeeri DeoPujari (Nirmal), 31, Stamford, Connecticut; Sumil Sandhu, 45, Half Moon Bay; Juha Pekka Ahopelto, 50, Sunnyvale; Berenice Felipe, 16, Santa Cruz; Yuko Hatano, 39, San Jose; Xiang Lin, 45, Fremont; Adrian Dahood-Fritz, 40, Sacramento; Lisa Fiedler, 52, Mill Valley; Kristina “Kristy” Finstad, 41, Santa Cruz; Fernisa Sison, 57, Stockton; Kristian Takvam, 34, San Francisco; Raymond “Scott” Chan, 59, Los Altos; Justin Carroll Dignam, 58, Anaheim; Daniel Garcia, 46, Berkeley; Marybeth Guiney, 51, Santa Monica; Yulia Krashennaya, 40, Berkeley; Alexandra Kurtz, 25, Santa Barbara; Caroline McLaughlin, 35, Oakland; Ted Strom, 62, Germantown, Tennessee; Wei Tan, 26, Goleta; Kendra Chan, 26, Oxnard; Angela Rose Quitasol, 28, Stockton; Evan Michel Quitasol, 37, Stockton; Nicole Storm Quitasol, 31, Imperial Beach; Michael Quitasol, 62, Stockton; Carol Diana Adamic, 60, Santa Cruz; Andrew Fritz, 40, Sacramento; Charles McIlvain, 44, Santa Monica; Steven Salika, 55, Santa Cruz; Tia Salika-Adamic, 17, Santa Cruz; Neal Gustav Baltz, 42, Phoenix; Patricia Ann Beitzinger, 48, Chandler, Arizona; and Vaidehi Campbell, 41, Felton.

“May they all rest in peace,” Brown said. “And may their families know that all of us who have been involved in this sad operation continue to hold them in our hearts and in our prayers.”

All of the bodies were found within the same small debris field, a sheriff’s official said Thursday, and Brown said all apparently died of smoke inhalation. Most of the remains have been identified using rapid DNA testing.

Now that the bodies have been recovered and identified, the investigation will fall largely to federal authorities, Brown said, who will examine the now-raised boat after it is carried by barge to a secure and undisclosed location.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Gretchen Wenner covers breaking news for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at gretchen.wenner@vcstar.com or 805-437-0270.