A middle-of-the-night fire swept a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early Monday, leaving at least 25 dead and nine others missing. Five of six crew members on the Conception escaped by jumping into an inflatable boat they steered to a nearby vessel. Rescuers recovered four bodies about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles just off Santa Cruz Island.

The Coast Guard says five others have been found but not recovered due to unsafe conditions under the boat, which sank about 20 yards (18 meters) from shore. Authorities will search for the nine people still unaccounted for through the night. "We should all be prepared to move into the worst outcome," Coast Guard Capt. Monica Rochester said at a news conference. The four bodies recovered initially had injuries consistent with drowning, said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Kroll. It wasn't immediately clear when the bodies on the ocean floor might be retrieved or when divers could search the boat for others. "It's upside down in relatively shallow water with receding tides that are moving it around," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. Investigators have not yet determined a cause for the fire. The 75-foot (23 meters) Conception was on a three-day excursion to the chain of rugged, wind-swept isles that form Channel Islands National Park in the Pacific Ocean.