Woman Dies in Flaming Car, Friend Badly Hurt : Fatality: Man arrested after auto strikes stopped vehicle, igniting fire. Two injured in third car.

A Fountain Valley woman burned to death and a second woman was critically injured after their car was struck from behind, causing it to burst into flames, authorities said Monday.

The force of the Sunday night crash ruptured the gas tank in the 1980 Toyota Cressida, police said. Tram Thi Nguyen, who had been riding in the front passenger seat, was killed.

Police arrested Fullerton resident Kelly J. Stoehr, 37, on suspicion of felony drunk driving and felony vehicular manslaughter, Sgt. Harold Parkison said. Stoehr, who was alone in his 1992 Ford Thunderbird, was arrested at the scene.

The explosion “looked like napalm had been thrown into the car,” said William Olding, one of the men who pulled the injured driver from the Cressida.

Nga Nguyen, 24, of Santa Ana was listed in critical condition Monday at UCI Medical Center in Orange with second-degree burns on her face, a hospital spokeswoman said. She and Tram Thi Nguyen, also 24, were friends.

Two passengers in a third car suffered minor injuries in the crash, and two men who tried unsuccessfully to pull Tram Thi Nguyen from the burning car had slight burns on their hands, police said.

According to traffic investigators, Stoehr was driving north on Euclid Street when he struck the rear of the stopped Cressida, forcing it into the La Palma Avenue intersection. The Cressida careened into a third vehicle, driven by Antonio Cuevas Suarez as he pulled into the intersection. Cuevas Suarez was not injured, police said.

Traffic investigators do not know how fast Stoehr was driving at the moment of impact but said the collision knocked the Cressida about 90 feet into the right side of Suarez’s car as he tried to make a left turn onto La Palma Avenue from Euclid Street, Parkison said.

After the collision, “it seemed like nothing would happen at first and the next second it exploded,” recalled Johnny Watts, 34, the second man who tried to pull Tram Thi Nguyen to safety.

As flames curled over the Cressida and smoke filled the interior, Watts slammed his foot into a driver-side window, trying to open the locked door so he could pull out the driver of the Cressida, he said. Watts tried to pull Tram Thi Nguyen from the car, but “it was too hot, I tried to reach in there.”

Toyota officials said the Cressida does not have any structural problems that may have contributed to the fire. Sean Kane of the Center for Auto Safety, a Washington-based watchdog group, said he could find no reports of structural problems with the Cressida.

Stoehr had an unblemished driving record before the accident, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. He was being held in Anaheim City Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.