All 34 Victims of California Boat Fire ID’d

The Associated Press
By The Associated Press
September 13, 2019US News
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All 34 Victims of California Boat Fire ID’d
A dive boat is engulfed in flames after a deadly fire broke out aboard the commercial scuba diving vessel off the Southern California Coast on Sept. 2, 2019. (Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP)

LOS ANGELES—Authorities say they have now identified all 34 victims of a boat fire off the Southern California coast.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office added the last seven names on Thursday. They include a Connecticut couple and several people from Silicon Valley.

DNA testing helped identify them.

— Carol Diana Adamic, 60, of Santa Cruz, California
— Juha Pekka Ahopelto, 50, Sunnyvale, California
— Neal Gustav Baltz, 42, Phoenix, Arizona
— Patricia Ann Beitzinger, 48, Chandler, Arizona
— Vaidehi Campbell, 41, Felton, California
— Raymond “Scott” Chan, 59, Los Altos, California
— Kendra Chan, 26, Oxnard, California
— Adrian Dahood-Fritz, 40, Sacramento, California
— Justin Carroll Dignam, 58, Anaheim, California
— Berenice Felipe, 16, Santa Cruz, California
— Lisa Fiedler, 52, Mill Valley, California
— Kristina “Kristy” Finstad, 41, Santa Cruz, California
— Andrew Fritz, 40, Sacramento, California
— Daniel Garcia, 46, Berkeley, California
— Marybeth Guiney, 51, Santa Monica, California
— Yuko Hatano, 39, San Jose, California
— Yulia Krashennaya, 40, Berkeley, California
— Alexandra Kurtz, 26, Santa Barbara, California
— Xiang Lin, 45, Fremont, California
— Caroline McLaughlin, 35, Oakland, California
— Charles McIlvain, 44, Santa Monica, California
— Kaustubh Nirmal, 33, Stamford, Connecticut
— Sanjeeri Deopujari, 31, Stamford, Connecticut
— Angela Rose Quitasol, 28, Stockton, California
— Evan Michel Quitasol, 37, Stockton, California
— Nicole Storm Quitasol, 31, of Imperial Beach, California
— Michael Quitasol, 62, Stockton, California
— Steven Salika, 55, Santa Cruz, California
— Tia Salika-Adamic, 17, Santa Cruz, California
— Sumil Sandhu, 45, Half Moon Bay, California
— Fernisa Sison, 57, Stockton, California
— Ted Strom, 62, Germantown, Tennessee
— Kristian Takvam, 34, San Francisco, California
— Wei Tan, 26, Goleta, California

The scuba diving boat Conception burned and sank off Santa Cruz Island before dawn on Sept. 2. The passengers and one crew member were trapped in a bunkroom below deck. Five crew members survived.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a report Thursday that said all six crew members were asleep.

That’s a violation of the Coast Guard’s rules. Boats like the Conception are required to have a crew member keep watch at night.

Federal authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into the deadly fire.

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