5 casualties in limo fire identified

CHICAGO – Authorities have identified the five people who perished in a limousine that caught fire at the  San Mateo-Hayward Bridge in Redwood City, California on May 4.

County of San Mateo Coroner Robert Foucrault said they are still determining the exact cause and manner of the victims’ death pending toxicology results. The final report is due in three to four weeks.

The coroner identified the fatalities as Michelle Estrera, 35, of Fresno; Anna Alcantara, 46, of San Lorenzo; Felomina Geronga, 43, of Alameda; Neriza Pobre Fojas, 31, of Monterey; and Jennifer Balon, 39, of Dublin, all Filipinos who resided in California and worked mostly as nurses.

Fojas and Estrera were trauma medical/surgical nurses of the Community Regional Medical Center at Fresno while Balon and Alcantara were “current and former employees” at the Fruitvale Healthcare Center in Oakland.

They were five of the nine passengers in a white Lincoln Towncar limousine that burst into flames along 92 Expressway Saturday in the Bay Area.

The Golden Gate Division of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) earlier identified the four injured as Jasmin de Guia (earlier identified as Desguia), 34, of San Jose; Amalia Loyola, 48, of San Leandro; Mary Guardiano, of Alameda; and Nelia Arellano, 36, of Oakland.

Arellano, for her part, said they managed to get out of the burning vehicle by squeezing through the partition window leading to the driver’s seat.

Arellano said she earlier alerted the limousine driver to stop the car because of the smoke coming from under the passenger seats.

But the driver, Orville Brown, thought Arellano merely wanted to smoke inside the car so he ignored her plea and drove on to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Foster City, still four minutes away.

It was a minute and a half after Arellano’s scream of smoke, drowned out by the music inside the limousine, that Brown realized it was not from a cigarette.

De Guia, Loyola and Guardiano also managed to get out of the car. The five others, among them the bride Fojas, were not as lucky as they struggled but failed to get out of the car.

The groom, Carlo Moya, was waiting for Fojas to show up for their wedding at the Crowne Plaza.