What we know about the victims of the Santa Cruz Island boat fire

A family of five from Stockton, two high school students and the owner of a Santa Cruz diving company are among the passengers of a boat that was engulfed by flames in Southern California, sending shock waves across the Bay Area, where most of the victims hailed from.

Officials have not formally named any victims, saying DNA samples might be needed to identify some of the remains. So far, 25 people have been confirmed dead and nine others were missing but presumed dead after Coast Guard officials suspended their search for survivors Tuesday morning. Five crew members were able to escape the devastating fire.

But as rescue turned to recovery, the names of those lost in the fire — believed to be one of the worst recreational boating disasters in state history — have begun to emerge. Here’s what we know so far about the victims:

The Quitasol-Sison Family 

Among the passengers identified is a family of five from Stockton, who had been celebrating the birthday of Michael Quitasol, a registered nurse in his early 60s who had worked as a registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente medical centers in Modesto and Manteca. Quitasol had been traveling with his partner, Fernisa June Sison, also was a nurse who had worked at St. Joseph’s Medical Center, and three of his daughters.

In a Facebook post, the women’s mother, Susana Rosa, confirmed “with a broken heart” that the family had been passengers on the Conception.

Like her dad and stepmom, Evanmichel Solano Quitasol, 37, known as Evan, had worked as a nurse in Stockton and Modesto hospitals, according to a Kaiser spokesperson.

Nicole Quitasol, 31, worked at a restaurant in Coronado, a sleepy beach community in San Diego County. She was a server and bartender at Nicky Rottens Bar and Burger Joint for almost four years, according to the restaurant’s CFO Bryn Butolph.

Angela Quitasol, 28, the youngest of the three, was a 7th-grade science teacher at Sierra Middle School in Stockton, where she had attended school years earlier. She was also a former member of Stockton’s Port City women’s roller derby team, where she skated under the name Hermione Danger, according to a team Facebook post. The post said a fourth Quitasol sister, who was not on the diving trip, also was a former derby member.

“For Angela, students were her focus. She shared her passion for science with them and greeted them every day with a high five and a bright smile,” Lincoln Unified Superintendent Kelly Dextraze said in a statement. “We are all deeply saddened by this terrible incident and hold her family, and all those affected, in our thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.”

Chris Rosas, Susana Rosa’s husband, said Tuesday that he and his wife had joined other relatives of the victims to await more information from authorities.

“We’re in Santa Barbara with all the other people who lost someone in the accident. We’re all talking to each other, just being together,” he said.

 

Raymond Scott Chan and Kendra Chan

A Los Altos resident who had worked as a physics teacher at American High School in Fremont for about three years, was on board the Conception with his daughter, according to a Fremont Unified School District spokesperson.

The school made an announcement to staff and students on Tuesday and said a crisis intervention team will be on campus throughout the week.

Charles McKinven, the store manager at Pacific Scuba Divers, a dive shop in Sunnyvale, said Chan was a regular customer there.

“Scott himself had probably been in the shop here as recently as back in May/June time frame,” McKinven said Tuesday when reached by phone. He said Chan was a certified diver and would come in for additional equipment and accessories. The cover photo on Chan’s Facebook profile page showed him diving near Santa Cruz Island.

Chan’s daughter was identified by KTVU as 26-year-old Kendra Chan, who worked as a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife office in Ventura, California.

Pacific Collegiate School students Tia Salika and Berenice Felipe, and parents Steve Salika and Diana Adamic

Steve Salika, his wife Diana Adamic and their daughter Tia Salika, who attended Pacific Collegiate School and was celebrating her 17th birthday, were among the missing, according to Adamic’s brother, James Adamic.

Maria C. Reitano, head of school at Pacific Collegiate School in Santa Cruz, confirmed in an email that two students and the parents of one of those students from that school were also on the boat.

NBC News named 16-year-old Berenice Felipe as the second Pacific Collegiate School student on the boat.

Kristy Finstad 

Kristy Finstad, co-owner of a Santa Cruz-based diving company, was also on the boat, according to family members. Finstad’s Worldwide Diving Adventures had chartered the 75-foot commercial diving boat Conception for a Labor Day weekend excursion of the coast of Ventura County.

Finstad, a diving instructor and marine biologist who runs the company with her husband Dan Chua, was helping lead a weekend diving trip off the Channel Islands, according to a Facebook post by her brother, Brett Harmeling.

Reached by phone late Monday afternoon, Harmeling said he still hadn’t heard any information about his sister from officials, more than 12 hours after officials said the boat caught fire. Harmeling didn’t want to comment further.

Finstad worked part-time for the Santa Cruz’s Water Department on watershed health and protection from 2005 to 2015, when she left to run the family diving business full-time, according to a statement issued by the city.

“Kristina was a gifted interpreter of natural resources, and often led Department programs,” the statement said.

Emily Zimmel, the co-owner of Adventure Sports Unlimited, a dive shop and swim school in Santa Cruz, said the Finstad family is well-known in their “tight-knit diving community.” Zimmel’s company has co-chartered weekend trips with Finstad’s Worldwide Diving Adventures and has also chartered boats from Truth Aquatics, which owns the Conception.

Zimmel said the news of the tragedy has hit hard in the diving community, and while no official word has come out about Kristy Finstad, Zimmel’s family is grieving and in fear of her death.

“Kristy was a really bright soul. It’s been a really big bummer,” she said. “We broke down. I broke down. I cried, I cried hard.”

When the fire broke out on Conception, Zimmel was about 100 miles south on the Vision, also owned by Truth Aquatics, leading her own Labor Day weekend diving trip.

“All the people on our boat were definitely rattled with the news of the Finstad chartered boat. Everybody on our boat knew at least one person on (Conception),” she said, adding that they ended that trip early and came home.

“We’re a pretty small community and everybody is really cool with each other,” Zimmel said. “We’re all suffering. It’s going to be a hard one to come out of.”

Allie Kurtz 

Allie Kurtz, 25, was also on the boat, according to a GoFundMe page and multiple news reports. Kurtz had worked at Paramount Pictures, her mother told KTLA.

Lisa Fiedler

Lisa Fiedler, 52, of Mill Valley, loved to dive and even thought of herself as “part fish,” her mother Nancy Fiedler told ABC7 News, this news organization’s media partner.

Nancy said her daughter worked as a hairdresser but was also known for her stunning nature photography.

“Everybody loved her. She was a kind, gentle person. She was a naturalist, she loved nature,” Nancy said in a tearful interview with the station.

Staff writers Erin Woo and Jason Green contributed to this report.