"Now They’re Just Gone": A Family Of 5, High Schoolers, A Father And His Daughter Among California Boat Fire Victims – BuzzFeed News

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Angela Quitasol, 28, had moved to Stockton several years ago and taught seventh-grade science at Sierra Middle School in the same area where she grew up.

“For Angela, students were her focus,” Patty Kelley, the superintendent’s executive assistant, said in a statement. “She shared her passion for science with them and greeted them every day with a high five and a bright smile.”

Rosas’ eldest child, Evan Michael Quitasol, was a nurse at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, hospital officials confirmed. Her 31-year-old daughter, Nicole Quitasol, lived in Coronado where she worked at a sports bar. She loved the water and scuba diving, according to her Facebook page.

“Nicole was such a smart, loving, energetic and adventurous soul. She will be greatly missed,” Butolph said, adding that the bar had set up a GoFundMe to help her mother with funeral costs for all 5 family members.

The girls’ father, Michael Quitasol, and their stepmother, Fernisa Sison, worked at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in the Central Valley, the health care company confirmed.

The couple lived their lives “for their kids,” Sison’s daughter, Nisa Shinagawa, told KTXL, and often worked up to four jobs at a time to make ends meet. Once their children grew up, finished school, and could take care of themselves, they began to “put more time into the things they wanted to do, like diving,” Shinagawa said.

“It was a dream of Micheal’s to get back into scuba diving,” she said. “When him and my mom got together, they wanted to start doing more things in their lives for themselves…they had lived their lives for us.”

Michael Quitasol loved to scuba dive and the Labor Day adventure was his “annual trip,” his children said.

“He’s been on that boat multiple times, so many times annually…with that company and that boat,” Dominic Selga told the Fox affiliate. “We have memories on that boat. We’ve been on that boat.”

The Conception was well-known and beloved among the close-knit Southern California diving community. Many of the victims lived in the “Santa Cruz-San Jose-Bay Area region,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters.

Many people took to Facebook to share their memories and photos of family trips, reunions, and summer excursions to the Channel Islands, a diving destination known for its giant kelp forests and crystal clear waters.

Source Article from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/a-family-of-five-are-among-those-presumed-dead-in-the

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