An Immigrant Success Story Takes Tragic Turn in Fatal Fire

Since the first grade, Azalea Jusay’s teachers had alerted her parents: Your daughter has special gifts. She will go far.

Frank and Flor Jusay resolved that they would accompany her on the journey. They scrimped to put her--and her brother--through private schools. They took college courses at night to inspire their children. And when Azalea left for Berkeley, they made the eight-hour drive north as often as they could, fixing Thanksgiving dinner for the dorm one year and helping her move into a new rental house last weekend to launch her senior year.

“They were always together with their daughter,” said Judy Ogunji, who was Flor Jusay’s boss and friend. “Always.”

So it was that the Jusays, both 46, and their daughter, 21, were spending the night inside Azalea’s Berkeley flat early Sunday when fire engulfed the building. Trapped, all three Jusays died. No cause has been determined, though Alameda County authorities suspect flammable material left near a floor heater started the blaze.

All that is left of the Jusays’ journey--a tale that begins in the rural Philippines and winds through Hawaii and much of California--is their one surviving member, son Jonas. A well-spoken junior engineering student at UC Irvine, he had been on a camping trip in Yosemite National Park when the bad news reached him by cellular phone.

He said Monday that he plans to bury his parents and sister and continue his education with the help of a large extended family that reaches from Florida to Manila.

“Three-quarters of my family is gone,” said Jonas, 20. “I’m not sure what I will do. My mom always told me to turn to God.”

Flor and Frank Jusay had a religious, if poor, upbringing in the rural Philippines, where they met and married. In 1974, Frank Jusay enlisted in the Navy, working as an electrician and traveling the world before retiring six years ago as a chief petty officer.

Most recently, Frank Jusay was a maintenance worker in the Santa Ana schools, his son said.

Flor Jusay had dual training as a certified public accountant and as a registered dietitian. For the last four years, she worked as a nutritionist for the city of Long Beach’s health department. “She was our statistician in practice,” said Judy Ogunji, her boss. “With her mix of skills, we won’t be able to replace her.”

Azalea was born in Manila in 1978, but soon after, her parents moved to San Diego for her father’s Navy career. Another move to the naval base at Long Beach brought the young family to the small blue house on Fiddler Avenue in Lakewood, where they have lived for most of the last 18 years.

The Jusays insisted on the children going to private schools--Azalea and Jonas went to Catholic schools through elementary grades to high school.

Azalea had soared at all-girls St. Joseph High School, graduating first in her class of 170 in 1997. Her grade point average, weighted for a schedule thick with honors classes, was 4.56.

She lettered in three high school sports--running cross-country, swimming the butterfly and backstrokes, and earning all-California Interscholastic Federation honors as a soccer midfielder and defender. Her high school class voted her “Most Likely To Succeed.”

“Some people don’t like to be in the shadow of a sister, but I loved it,” said her brother.

She earned scholarships to Berkeley, where she was majoring in integrated biology and thinking about going into medicine. Long an admirer of Oxford University, she told friends she might apply for a Rhodes Scholarship this fall.

“She was not only the top student in her class, she is one of the best students we’ve ever had at this school,” said high school Principal Terri Mendoza.

And with her through high school and college were three good friends. They all went to Berkeley together. One of them-- Michelle Plesa-- was rooming in the house with Azalea. She managed to escape.

The Jusays gave their next-door neighbor, Margaret Clabby, their extra spaghetti and a warm goodbye Friday night. They left for Berkeley early Saturday and had planned to return by late Sunday.

“You couldn’t ask for better neighbors,” said Clabby. “I know that’s a cliche, but they are folks that would do anything for you.”

Frank, she said, did electrical wiring work for her and installed an air conditioner in her late husband Arthur’s bedroom when he was sick with emphysema.

He repaired her water heater when it sprung a leak. “I tried to pay him,” she said. “Instead he would bring over food and thank me for helping him practice his skills.”