(JTA) — A Jewish victim of the Santa Barbara boat disaster was scheduled to be buried on Monday in New Jersey.
Yulia Krashennaya, 40, of Berkeley, California, was one of 34 people killed when the scuba dive boat Conception caught fire and sank early on Sept. 2 during a Labor Day weekend outing.
Krashennaya’s partner, Daniel Garcia, 46, also was killed.
The only survivors were five crew members who were on the main deck when the fire broke out and jumped overboard.
Krashennaya’s body was released days ahead of the other victims after the intervention of the Misaskim organization and rabbis from Chabad-Lubavitch and Agudath Israel of America, the Yeshiva World News reported.
Krashennaya and Garcia were avid divers and underwater photographers who participated in dives around the world, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. She was a product manager at Spiralinks, where she did contract work for Cisco Global Event Marketing.
The fire had cut off escape routes and trapped the victims who were sleeping below deck. The primary cause of death of the victims has been determined to be smoke inhalation.
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