More victims identified from dive boat fire that claimed 34

The dive boat Concepcion was 20 yards from shore when it caught fire on Labor Day morning.

ASAM NEWS contributed to this report

Authorities continue to investigate the fire that sunk a diving boat, the Concepcion, and killed 34 passengers on Labor Day.

Thirty-three of dead have been recovered.

A South Asian couple from Connecticut has been identified in the fatal boat fire in Southern California, reports the Stamford Advocate.

Kaustubh Nirmal and Sanjeeri Deopujari have been married since 2016. Nirmal worked as a business analyst at Merrill Lynch and Deopujari had a dental practice in Norwalk.

Kaustubh Nirmal and Sanjeeri Deopujari

According to the American Bazaar, authorities used DNA mapping to identify the two. In all, 32 other people died in the fire. All were below deck sleeping at the time the fire broke out and likely died from smoke inhalation. 

Only five crew members on the top deck when the fire broke out survived. The crew members told authorities that they tried to rescue the passengers but the heat was too intense before ababndoning the boat. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

“He found a soulmate in Sanjeeri,” Nirmal’s cousin Rajul Sharma said to the LA Times. “Their love for each other was apparent even without them speaking about it.” “God took them away from us untimely and unfairly, but even he didn’t have the heart to separate them in death,” he said.

Other victims recently identified:

Adrian Dahood-Fritz was a senior environmental scientist with the state's Ocean Protection Council. Her husband, Andrew Fritz, was a professional photographer. The couple moved to California earlier this year from Taylor, TX.

Adrian Dahoud-Fritz

Dahood-Fritz worked for the Ocean Protection Council under the California Natural Resource Agency as a senior environmental scientist. She worked to manage California’s network of marine protected areas.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement Thursday. "She embodied marine conservation and was a highly accomplished and respected scientific researcher. Adrian's passion and energy will be greatly missed," Newsom wrote.

Wei Tan, 26, a recent graduate school alumna of UC Berkeley who studied industrial engineering was identified as a victim by her sister.“It hurts, it will always hurt, but we will move on,” Cheerin Tan wrote on Facebook.

Other passengers who perished in the boat were identified earlier. They include five members of a Filipino American family from Stockton, CA. as well as a Chinese American father and daughter, American High School physics teacher Scott Chan and Kendra, a marine biologist.

In a touching Facebook post, Susana Solano Rosas wrote a heartbreaking Facebook post, about her three daughters and ex-husband Michael Quitasol, whom she lost in the boat fire. She wrote: 

“I want to thank you all for your phone calls, texts, kind words, donations. The setting up of fundraiser. I am overwhelmed and humbled by all the support,” Rosas wrote. “It gives me great comfort to know my daughters, their dad and his wife were able to touch so many lives.”

“It is very difficult to know what to say to parents that have lost their children. Or to someone like Christina that lost her sisters, father and stepmom,” she continued, referencing her other daughter, Christina Quitasol, whom she shared with Michael.

“I can only say for me and my hubby, we don’t mind the texts, the phone calls the FB messages. I read them all. They bring great comfort to me,” she reassured. “If you do call me or my hubby, know we may cry or sob. It does not mean you have upset us. It is because you have touch[ed] our heart with your love for another human being.”

_____________________________________________________________________