OOSTBURG (AP) — Family members say a marine biologist from Wisconsin is among those presumed dead in a fire that swept through a scuba diving boat off the Southern California coast.
Forty-one-year-old Kristy Finstad, who co-owned Worldwide Diving Adventures, was leading the scuba diving trip on the chartered boat when it caught fire Monday and trapped 34 people on board. Finstad's mother and stepfather said their daughter would have fought until the end to get people to safety.
"She would have been the first one to get everybody to help and get everybody out, but I think they were blocked off by a ball of fire," said Al Harmeling, Kristy's stepfather.
Finstad attended Oostburg High School and graduated in 1996. Her studies led her to the University Of California Santa Barbara, where her parents said she got two degrees, one in aquatic biology, the other in environmental ecology.
"She did a lot of really good things. I’m thinking that’s the humanitarian side of her," said Rita Finstad Harmeling, Kristy's mother.
Finstad was described by her brother, Brett Harmeling of Houston, as strong-willed and adventurous.
Finstad studied damselfish and corals in the Tahitian Islands, dove for black pearls in the French Polynesian Tuamotus Islands and counted salmonids for the city of Santa Cruz, where she lived. She also did research for the Australian Institute of Marine Science and wrote a restoration guidebook for the California Coastal Commission.
