A family gathered on the waters of San Francisco Bay to honor a loved one's memory. By nightfall, one person was dead, three were missing, and rescuers were scouring cold, rough seas between Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge.
The vessel Volare, a 49-foot boat registered out of Stockton, California, capsized and sank Monday afternoon with roughly 20 people aboard, most of them family members holding a memorial service, USA Today reported. The boat went down approximately 600 yards off Alcatraz in about 120 feet of water and was reportedly leaking fuel.
Some passengers entered the bay without life jackets.
Shortly after 3:30 p.m. local time on July 14, the San Francisco Fire Department received a report of a vessel fire near Alcatraz. Callers had mistaken steam rising from the distressed boat for smoke. By approximately 3:37 p.m., SFFD crews were en route. But the San Francisco Police Department's Marine Unit beat them to the scene, and found something worse than a fire.
San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen described what officers encountered:
"The Police Department Marine Unit arrived first on the scene and found a capsized vessel, a three-deck pontoon boat, with one patient who was severely injured. They initiated CPR and an immediate transport to the shore. And this patient was declared deceased."
Witnesses told authorities the Volare had begun to take on water in rough sea conditions. Strong winds and changing tides around Alcatraz complicated both the capsizing and the rescue that followed. The vessel had departed from the St. Francis Yacht Club before it went under.
Rescue crews pulled 17 people from the water. Three were hospitalized in stable condition. Several suffered injuries that appeared related to the fall into the bay. A dog aboard the vessel also died.
As the afternoon wore on, the scope of the disaster grew. Authorities initially reported 19 people aboard and two missing. By late Monday night, the San Francisco Fire Department revised those figures upward: approximately 20 people were believed to have been on the boat, and three remained unaccounted for. The department attributed the revision to witness accounts gathered during the chaotic rescue.
Eleven rescue vessels fanned out across the bay. Divers went into the water. Helicopters swept overhead. The U.S. Coast Guard, Oakland police and fire crews, and San Francisco agencies all joined the effort. Survivors were transported to Fort Mason, where paramedics set up a triage area.
Water temperature near Alcatraz hovered around 60 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of the capsizing. By 8 a.m. the following morning, a U.S. Geological Survey monitoring station near the island recorded the water at roughly 64.8 degrees. At those temperatures, hypothermia sets in fast, especially for anyone who went into the bay without a life jacket.
A San Francisco fire official told reporters at a briefing: "This search will go on for some time."
Fire Chief Crispen told the Stockton Record, a USA Today Network outlet, that the people on board were mostly family members holding a memorial service. Who they were memorializing, and the identities of the dead and missing, have not been publicly released.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie addressed the disaster and thanked the multi-agency response:
"I want to express my condolences to the family members of the deceased. This is an all-hands-on-deck search and, hopefully, rescue."
Lurie specifically thanked the U.S. Coast Guard, the San Francisco Police Department, and Oakland police and fire crews for their roles in the operation.
As of the most recent update on July 15, the three missing individuals had not been found. No official cause for the capsizing has been announced. Witnesses pointed to rough conditions, but whether the boat was overloaded, suffered a mechanical failure, or was otherwise compromised remains unknown.
The vessel's own description raises questions. Authorities referred to the Volare as both a "49-foot cabin cruiser" and a "three-deck pontoon boat", two very different kinds of watercraft. Whether these labels describe the same vessel accurately, or reflect confusion in the early hours of the response, has not been clarified.
Perhaps most pressing: some passengers were in the water without life jackets. Whether the boat carried enough life jackets for everyone aboard, and whether any regulatory inspection preceded the trip, are questions that demand answers. No criminal or regulatory investigation has been publicly announced.
A family set out to remember someone they had lost. Now more families are waiting for news of their own. Whatever went wrong aboard the Volare, the people who boarded that boat deserved better than to be left at the mercy of San Francisco Bay without basic safety equipment.
