Passer by video captured the limousine that burst into flames on the San Mateo-Hayward bridge Saturday night, killing five women. The driver and four other passengers survived. Monday, authorities said the vehicle had too many passengers.
The California Highway Patrol has released the names of four of the surviving passengers and the surviving driver of limousine involved in a fire that killed five other women Saturday night. They were identified as Mary Grace Guardiano, 42, of Alameda; Nelia Rafael Arellano, 36, of Oakland; Amalia P. Loyola, 48, of San Leandro; Jasmine Desguia, 34, of San Jose. The driver’s name is Orville F. Brown, 46, of San Jose from Limo Stop, Inc.
The limo was carrying nine female passengers who were on their way to a bachelorette party at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Foster City when smoke started showing out of the back of the limo. The vehicle then burst into flames.
Five women were killed as the interior passenger area of the limousine became fully-involved with flames. The driver told investigators that one of the women reported smoke inside the passenger area of the limousine. The driver said he pulled over and stopped the 1999 Lincoln Town Car and saw the limousine fully-involved in flames.
The driver and three passers by that stopped to help, managed to get three women out a right rear door and one through a partition. The bride was among the victims killed. Relatives told the the San Jose Mercury News that one of the dead was Neriza Fojas, 31, a registered nurse from Fresno who recently wed and was with friends — all nurses — in the limousine. Five bodies were found near the partition of the limousine that separates the driver from the passengers.
A limousine traveling on the San Mateo bridge near San Francisco burst into flames Saturday night, killing five passengers who were trapped inside and injuring four others who managed to escape.
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