Fil-Am father, 3 daughters killed in California boat fire

Fil-Am father, 3 daughters killed in California boat fire
The Conception burned and sank, claiming the lives of Fil-Am father, 3 daughters  in California boat fire, Monday. (Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department/AFP/Getty Images)

A Filipino-American father and his three (3) daughters were among the victims of California boat fire at Santa Cruz Island in Southern California on Labor Day, September 2.

The family’s relatives identified them to be Michael Quitasol and daughters Evan, Nicole, and Angela.

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The Quitasol family was onboard The Conception, a 75-foot boat which offered scuba diving experience.

Five of the crew members managed to escape the fire by jumping off the boat while their passengers were sleeping at the ship’s lower quarters.

Passengers were on a 3-day tour to the Channel Islands and were supposed to go back to Santa Barbara by 5 p.m. Monday.

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Give InKind page was created to help the family, which raised more than $4,375 of their $20,000 goal up today.

California boat fire search and rescue stopped

The US Coast Guard called off their search and rescue operations for the victims the burned and sunk The Conception

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said, “You couldn’t ask for a worse situation.”

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Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Kroll said that they recovered 20 bodies, Monday night. Eleven of which are females while the other nine were identified as males. Rescuers located six more bodies in the boat’s wreckage but failed to recover them due to unsafe conditions under the ship.

The boat sank in about 60 feet (18 meters) of water, taking all the 34 lives of all the passengers aboard with it.

“There are some family, friends and loved ones who will never forget today,” said Suzanne Grimmesey, director of Santa Barbara County’s Department of Behavioral Wellness. “They will never forget the change from ‘search and rescue’ to ‘search and recovery.’ ”

People of Santa Barbara were saddened and shocked by the tragedy. Many said that The Conception was a great boat and had a high reputation as a scuba diving vessel. The celebrity Rob Lowe said that he has been in the Conception before.