The survivor of Saturday night’s limo fire near San Francisco said the driver “didn’t do anything” to help five women who got trapped inside and died.
Nelia Arellano, one of the survivors, told ABC News affiliate KGO-TV: “When he get out from that car, he just opened the door, that’s all he did. I even ask the driver, ‘Open the door, open the door.’ He didn’t do anything.”
“I even ask him, ‘Help me, help me,’ because I bring out my head from that compartment and say, ‘Help me,’ so I could squeeze myself over there and slide myself,” she added.
The driver, Orville Brown, said that he tried everything to help the women in the car. “I don’t know what we could have done differently to save them,” he said.
“Everything happened so fast,” Brown told CNN. “When that back door opened, it just burst into flames.”
He told KGO he believed the cause of the fire was electrical.
Buth Henkey, with Avaolon Transportation, told CBS affiliate KPIX-TV that the fire was unusual.
“I have heard of death by fire in a stretch limousine. But usually only involving a collision/accident. I’ve never heard of one just driving down the road and developing into a fireball,” he said.
The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office identified the victims on Tuesday as 35-year-old Michelle Estrera, of Fresno, 46-year-old Anna Alcantara and 43-year-old Felomina Geronga, both of Alameda, 31-year-old Neriza Fojas of Monterey and 39-year-old Jennifer Balon, also of Alameda.
The cause of deaths and toxicology reports are still pending. The Coroner’s Office says a final report could take another three to four weeks to complete.
The victims were among nine women celebrating Fojas’ recent wedding when the limo they were in caught fire on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge on Saturday night. Four of the women managed to escape.
Fojas and Balon had previously been identified by family. Estrera was identified by her employer.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
