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Investigators probe limousine fire

Published:Tuesday | May 7, 2013 | 12:00 AM
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San Mateo County firefighters and California Highway Patrol take a closer look during investigations of a limousine fire that killed five passengers. AP Photos
California Highway patrolmen light flares as they investigate the scene of a limousine fire that killed five passengers on the westbound side of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge last Saturday.
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REDWOOD CITY (AP):

INVESTIGATORS WERE trying to determine why the back of a stretch limousine burst into flames on a San Francisco Bay bridge, trapping and killing five of the nine women inside, including a newlywed bride from the Philippines.

Investigators said yesterday that the limo was carrying one too many passengers. The state Public Utilities Commission had authorised the vehicle to carry eight or fewer passengers, but it had nine on the night of the deadly fire, California Highway Patrol Captain Mike Maskarich said. He did not comment on whether the overcrowding may have been a factor in the deaths.

Unknown cause

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, and the vehicle has not yet been inspected, Maskarich said.

The Lincoln Town Car was packed with young women celebrating a girls' night out with a newlywed bride when it went up in flames last Saturday night on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. The driver and four women were able to escape. The newly-wed woman was among the dead.

Relatives told local newspapers that one of the dead was Neriza Fojas, a 31-year-old registered nurse from Fresno who recently wed and was planning to travel to her native Philippines to hold another ceremony before family. Her friends in the limousine were fellow nurses.