Daly City”•A Filipino-American father and his three daughters were among the 34 people killed in a boat fire near Santa Cruz Island in Southern California on Labor Day, ABS-CBN reported on Wednesday.
A relative identified the victims as Michael Quitasol and his daughters Evan, Nicole, and Angela.
Michael’s wife Fern, who was his daughters’ stepmother, was also on board the Concepcion, a 75-foot boat that offered a scuba experience.
She was not of Filipino descent.
The scuba-diving vessel had embarked for California’s Channel Islands on Saturday morning with 39 people on board. It caught fire past 3 a.m. on Monday while it was moored just off the shore of Santa Cruz Island.
Five crew members who were above deck on the bridge escaped the fire as the passengers slept in the ship’s lower quarters.
The 34 others are presumed dead, according to the US Coast Guard, which called off the search on Tuesday morning.
The Concepcion was on a three-day excursion to the Channel Islands and was due back in Santa Barbara at 5 p.m. Monday.
A Give InKind page was created to help the family, which has so far raised more than $4,375 of their $20,000 goal.