Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
33 Bodies From California Boat Fire Recovered, 1 Missing
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
September 4, 2019

Share

SANTA BARBARA — Thirty three bodies of victims from a scuba diving boat fire off Southern California have been recovered and one was still missing on Wednesday, authorities said.
The new count of confirmed deaths came after officials recovered 13 bodies on Tuesday, said Coast Guard Lt. Zach Farrell, a spokesman for the inter-agency joint information center in Santa Barbara representing local, county, state and federal officials involved in the case.
Authorities had previously said that 34 people were presumed dead after Monday’s pre-dawn fire engulfed the boat named Conception as the victims slept below decks near the island of Santa Cruz during a three-day scuba diving excursion.
Five crew members, including the captain, managed to escape. The vessel eventually sank and overturned, making the recovery of bodies challenging.
The victims identified so far include high school students, a science teacher and his daughter, a marine biologist and a family of five celebrating a birthday.
Officials have said the captain and four other crew members who survived jumped off the front of the vessel, swam to an inflatable boat at its stern and steered it to a ship anchored nearby.
But flames moved so quickly through the 75-foot vessel that it blocked a narrow stairway and an escape hatch leading to the upper decks, giving those below virtually no chance of escaping, authorities said.
Authorities ended the search for any other survivors on Tuesday.
DNA will be needed to identify all the victims. Authorities will use the same rapid analysis tool that identified victims of the deadly wildfire that devastated the Northern California town of Paradise last year, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.

The Fire Broke out Shortly After 3 a.m. Monday

Brown said he had heard anecdotally that those who died ranged from teenagers to people in their 60s.

“Everybody’s devastated. It’s a totally unexpected thing that happened. What caused the fire, that’s the big question, that’s what we all want to know.” — Dominic Selga, Sison’s ex-husband
A broken-hearted mother said on her Facebook page Tuesday that her three daughters, their father and his wife were among those presumed dead.
Susana Rosas of Stockton, California, posted that her three daughters — Evan, Nicole and Angela Quitasol — were with their father Michael Quitasol and stepmother Fernisa Sison.
Evan Quitasol was a nurse at St. Joseph’s Medical Center of Stockton, where her father and Sison had worked after attending nursing school at San Joaquin Delta College.
Sison also worked at the college teaching first-year nursing students full-time in 2005 and 2006 and later as an adjunct instructor, according to the school’s spokesman, Alex Breitler.
“Everybody’s devastated. It’s a totally unexpected thing that happened,” said Dominic Selga, Sison’s ex-husband. “What caused the fire, that’s the big question, that’s what we all want to know.”
Rosas’ husband, Chris, told the Los Angeles Times that Nicole Quitasol worked as a bartender in Coronado near San Diego and her sister, Angela, was a science teacher at a middle school in Stockton.
Nicole worked for a Coronado restaurant called Nicky Rottens. A GoFundMe page the restaurant to help the family described Nicole as “an adventurous & loving soul.”
The fire broke out shortly after 3 a.m. Monday as the boat sat anchored in Platt’s Harbor off Santa Cruz Island, among the rugged, wind-swept isles that form Channel Islands National Park in the Pacific Ocean west of Los Angeles.
Photo of search are where divers are searching for wreckage
This image made from video provided by KABC-TV shows the outlined search area where divers are searching the wreckage of the sunken dive boat Conception, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019, after it burned and sank Sunday, off Santa Cruz Island in Southern California’s Channel Islands. (KABC-TV via AP)

‘They Went to Heaven Doing Something They Loved’

Those on board included students from Pacific Collegiate School in Santa Cruz, a public charter school for grades 7 through 12, the school said.
Scott Chan, a physics teacher at American High School in Fremont, also was aboard with his daughter, said Brian Killgore, a spokesman for the Fremont Unified School District. The district said in a statement that Chan taught Advance Placement physics classes for the past three years.

“They went to heaven doing something they loved together.” — Neal’s father, John Baltz
“His students knew him to be an innovative and inspiring teacher who developed a passion for physics among his students,” the district said in a statement. “His loss is a tremendous tragedy for our school district.”
Chan on his LinkedIn page described his teaching as driven by “passion and wealth of real-world experience from research laboratories, and the electronics, computer, and high-performance automotive industries.”
ABC affiliate KNXV-TV in Phoenix reported that an Arizona couple, Patricia Beitzinger and Neal Baltz, were on the trip.
“They went to heaven doing something they loved together,” Neal’s father, John Baltz, told the television station.
Also below decks was Kristy Finstad, a marine biologist and co-owner of Worldwide Diving Adventures in Santa Cruz, which chartered the boat. Finstad was leading the scuba tour.
Finstad knew the area well and had done hundreds of dives in the Channel Islands, where she first swam with her father as a toddler. She first dove with a tank off Mexico at age 9, according to her company’s website.

Crews Have Always Been Meticulous in Going Over Safety Instructions

Finstad studied damselfish and corals in the Tahitian Islands, dove for black pearls in the French Polynesian Tuamotus Islands and counted salmonids for the city of Santa Cruz, where she lived. She also did research for the Australian Institute of Marine Science and wrote a restoration guidebook for the California Coastal Commission.
“My mission is to inspire appreciation for our underwater world,” she wrote on her company’s website.
She and her husband had just returned from sailing across the South Pacific.
Actor Rob Lowe tweeted that he had been aboard the vessel many times. Dave Reid, who runs an underwater camera manufacturing business with his wife, Terry Schuller, also has traveled on the Conception and two other boats in Truth Aquatics’ fleet and said he considered all three among the best and safest.
Schuller said the company’s crews have always been meticulous in going over safety instructions at the beginning of every trip she’s been on.
“They tell you where the life jackets are, how to put them on … the exits, where the fire extinguishers are, on every single trip,” Schuller said.
Coast Guard records show the boat’s owners quickly addressed all safety violations over the last five years.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the fire and scheduled a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

DON'T MISS

Braves’ Jurickson Profar Hit With 80-Game PED Ban

DON'T MISS

Watch: City Demolishes Historic Chinatown Building to Make Way for Housing

DON'T MISS

The Mystery of Melania Trump’s Wedding Dress and an eBay Sale

DON'T MISS

Heading to Sierra? Prepare for Heavy Snow

DON'T MISS

Mexican National Caught in Fresno County Pleads Guilty to Fentanyl Trafficking

DON'T MISS

CA Snowpack Is Near-Average. What Does This Mean for Water Supplies?

DON'T MISS

Shohei Ohtani Adds Another No. 1 to His Resume: MLB’s Best-Selling Jersey

DON'T MISS

Tush Push Is the Hottest Topic at the NFL League Meetings

DON'T MISS

U.S. Bank Executive Terry Dolan Dies in Plane Crash Near Minneapolis

DON'T MISS

Trump Administration Will Review Billions in Funding for Harvard

UP NEXT

U.S. Bank Executive Terry Dolan Dies in Plane Crash Near Minneapolis

UP NEXT

California Gov. Newsom Says the Democratic Brand Is ‘Toxic’

UP NEXT

Silver Fire Grows to 1,250 Acres, Threatens Homes in Inyo County

UP NEXT

Sue or Hold Back? The University of California Does Both as It Faces Trump’s Wrath

UP NEXT

Top Vaccine Official Resigns From FDA, Criticizes RFK Jr. for Promoting Misinformation, Lies

UP NEXT

California Food Banks Brace for Funding Cuts, and Not Only From the Trump Administration

UP NEXT

Cal State Automatically Admitting High School Students With Good Grades

UP NEXT

California Democratic Lawmaker Exaggerated His Record as a Police Officer

UP NEXT

Utah Becomes the First State to Ban Fluoride in Public Drinking Water

UP NEXT

Wilmer Flores’ 3-Run Homer in the 9th Inning Propels Giants to Victory Over Reds

Heading to Sierra? Prepare for Heavy Snow

2 hours ago

Mexican National Caught in Fresno County Pleads Guilty to Fentanyl Trafficking

2 hours ago

CA Snowpack Is Near-Average. What Does This Mean for Water Supplies?

3 hours ago

Shohei Ohtani Adds Another No. 1 to His Resume: MLB’s Best-Selling Jersey

3 hours ago

Tush Push Is the Hottest Topic at the NFL League Meetings

3 hours ago

U.S. Bank Executive Terry Dolan Dies in Plane Crash Near Minneapolis

4 hours ago

Trump Administration Will Review Billions in Funding for Harvard

4 hours ago

Former MLB Pitcher CJ Wilson of Fresno on New Torpedo Bats: ‘Still Room for Innovation’

5 hours ago

Man Arrested After Shooting at Fresno’s Switch Nightclub

5 hours ago

Who Is Fresno’s ‘Fake’ ICE Agent? He Speaks Up

6 hours ago

Braves’ Jurickson Profar Hit With 80-Game PED Ban

NEW YORK — Atlanta Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar has been suspended for 80 games without pay for performance-enhancing drug use. Major ...

59 minutes ago

Jurickson Profar
59 minutes ago

Braves’ Jurickson Profar Hit With 80-Game PED Ban

1 hour ago

Watch: City Demolishes Historic Chinatown Building to Make Way for Housing

Photo of First Lady Melania Trump
2 hours ago

The Mystery of Melania Trump’s Wedding Dress and an eBay Sale

2 hours ago

Heading to Sierra? Prepare for Heavy Snow

Miguel Obed Romero Reyes, 25, of Sinaloa, Mexico, pleaded guilty Monday, March 31, 2025, to trafficking more than 200,000 fentanyl pills after authorities seized the drugs during a traffic stop on Interstate 5. (DOJ)
2 hours ago

Mexican National Caught in Fresno County Pleads Guilty to Fentanyl Trafficking

3 hours ago

CA Snowpack Is Near-Average. What Does This Mean for Water Supplies?

3 hours ago

Shohei Ohtani Adds Another No. 1 to His Resume: MLB’s Best-Selling Jersey

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) lines up for the goal line Tush Push play during the NFL championship playoff football game against the Washington Commanders, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP File)
3 hours ago

Tush Push Is the Hottest Topic at the NFL League Meetings

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend