California investigators to use war zone DNA analysis technique to identify boat fire victims

A woman places flowers at a makeshift memorial near Truth Aquatics as the search continues for those missing in a pre-dawn fire that sank a commercial diving boat near Santa Barbara, California, U.S., September 3, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

(Reuters) - California emergency workers were using a DNA analysis technique primarily employed in war zones and crime scenes to quickly identify the badly-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 9 male - and were working to retrieve the bodies of 14 others from the charred, sunken wreckage of the Conception.