Limo fire kills 5 on San Mateo Bridge 4 in bridal party flee as car burns on San Mateo Bridge

Video: Limo fire in SF Bay Area leaves 5 dead

They were heading out on what was supposed to be one of the happiest nights of Neriza Fojas' life, a party to cap off the bridal shower she'd been celebrating with eight of her nurse friends. Then the women's stretch limousine headed west over the San Mateo Bridge - and horror erupted.

Just after 10 p.m. Saturday, flames burst out in the back of the 1999 Lincoln Town Car. The driver pulled over, and he and four of the women managed to escape. But the other five passengers, including Fojas, remained trapped.

They couldn't get out the rear doors, so they tried to squeeze through a small window into the driver's compartment. Within seconds, the back end was engulfed and it was too late.

Emergency workers later found Fojas and four of her friends clustered under the 3-by-1 1/2-foot window. The women, all in their 30s and 40s, died in the flames.

"This is one of the most horrific things I've seen in 21 years with this office," San Mateo County's medical examiner, Robert Foucrault, said Sunday. "Looking at it, they were on top of each other and doing what they could to get out."

Workers investigate the scene of a limousine fire that killed five members of a bridal party on the San Mateo Bridge. Workers investigate the scene of a limousine fire that killed five members of a bridal party on the San Mateo Bridge. Photo: Jane Tyska, Associated Press Photo: Jane Tyska, Associated Press Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Limo fire kills 5 on San Mateo Bridge 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

The California Highway Patrol said it was investigating the cause of the fire.

All nurses in party

Several drivers stopped, but all they could do was help the survivors, Foucrault said. The limousine's driver, 46-year-old Orville Brown of San Jose, was unhurt, and the four survivors went to area hospitals for treatment of burns and smoke inhalation.

All the women riding in the limo were nurses, Foucrault said.

Fojas, a 31-year-old registered nurse at the Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, had been married recently in the United States, said her sister Rosalyn Bersamin, who lives in Hawaii. The couple were planning to travel to her native Philippines next month and hold another ceremony before her family June 19, Bersamin said.

After gathering Saturday evening in the East Bay, Fojas and her friends were headed to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Foster City for her bridal shower. Her husband was at the hotel, waiting for his bride.

"She was a hard worker, a loving sister," a sobbing Bersamin said.

The women had attended a party in Alameda earlier in the evening, said Rosita Guardiano, 73, mother of one of the survivors, 42-year-old Mary Grace Guardiano of Alameda.

Rosita Guardiano said her daughter, who goes by Grace, was in intensive care being treated for smoke inhalation.

"She's OK, but it is very scary," the mother said. "Thank God she survived. I've been crying all morning.

"My daughter is very sad and crying, too. This was supposed to be such a happy day."

The limousine was a couple hundred yards from the western end of the bridge when the flames erupted. Brown, the driver, said he pulled over when one of the women alerted him to the smell of smoke.

Brown said he helped some of the survivors to safety but was unable to save the women in the back.

"We got out by the grace of God. I just wish that I could have done more," Brown said. "It's something you never imagine will happen."

Huddled together

The victims who died, Foucrault said, "were either trying to escape or huddled together for protection. They may have been trying to get out that window" into the driver's compartment.

CHP Officer Art Montiel said investigators don't know what caused the fire, but they are asking anyone who saw what happened to call.

"It wasn't a traffic collision, but we are still investigating," Montiel said. "We are asking the public, anyone who saw what happened, to call us. We don't know if the fire started on the inside or the outside."

The medical examiner's office said none of the names of the other four women killed in the fire would be released before Monday. But a spokeswoman at Community Medical Centers, parent company of the Fresno hospital where Fojas worked, said at least one other employee may have been involved in the tragedy.

Grace Guardiano had worked with Fojas earlier and is now a nurse at Crown Bay Nursing Home in Alameda, her mother said. A supervisor at the nursing home, Dina Sanchez, said she and the staff were "all shocked but incredibly relieved to find out that Grace is OK."

Guardiano's mother said her daughter was hospitalized with another survivor, Nelia Arrellano, 36, of Oakland. Arrellano just moved to the Bay Area from the Philippines, Rosita Guardiano said.

Authorities said all the surviving women were being treated for moderate injuries.

"Grace told us, 'Don't worry, don't worry,' " her mother said.

Identities of survivors

The survivors were at Stanford Medical Center and Valley Medical Center in San Jose. Besides Guardiano and Arrellano, they were identified as 34-year-old Jasmine Desguia of San Jose and Amalia Loyola, 48, of San Leandro. Sanchez said Loyola works at another convalescent hospital in Oakland.

The limo was owned by Limo Stop Inc. of San Jose. Its owner, Kultar Singh, said Sunday, "I'm very, very saddened" by the accident, but he declined to comment further about what happened.

Singh said he has owned Limo Stop for about seven years. State records show that the company's license is valid and up to date.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Trapper Byrne, Will Kane and Ellen Huet contributed to this report.