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Limo fire: Coroner identifies dead women

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OAKLAND — The San Mateo county coroner’s office on Tuesday identified the five women killed on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge when their limousine became engulfed in flames while traveling to a wedding celebration.

They are: Neriza Fojas, 31, and Michelle Estrera, 35, of Fresno; Jennifer Balon, 39, of Dublin; Anna Alcantara, 46, of San Lorenzo; and Felomina Geronga, 43, of Alameda. Four other passengers survived, as did the driver.

Other than Geronga, the close-knit Filipina friends were all nurses who had met while working at Oakland’s Fruitvale Healthcare Center, bonding like “sisters,” one survivor told a local television station.

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The Saturday night inferno trapped them as they headed for a hotel bridal party for Fojas, who had recently married but was planning to return to her native Philippines next month for a second ceremony.

Balon, who went by “Jenni,” leaves a 10-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son, her husband, John Balon, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“Every time I see my kids playing, I miss her so much,” Balon told the Chronicle. “Now that she’s gone, my kids are always looking for her.”

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Balon told the paper that one of the fire survivors, Nelia Arrellano, 36, said the limousine’s doors were locked when the women tried to escape a fire that appears to have begun in the rear of the vehicle. The five who perished were found in a heap near the window, San Mateo County Coroner Robert J. Foucrault said.

Although officials said they had yet to review the limousine’s maintenance record or examine its burned-out shell, California Highway Patrol Capt. Mike Maskarich said the 1999 Lincoln Town Car was licensed to carry only eight passengers, though nine were inside.

A spokesman for the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates limousines, said they are not required to carry fire extinguishers.

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The limo driver, Orville Brown, told CNN on Monday that the fire escalated when one survivor managed to open a rear door from the outside.

“Everything happened so fast,” said Brown, 46. “When that back door opened, it just burst into flames.”

Alcantara leaves a 14-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter, her brother-in-law, Rusty Padojino, told the Chronicle.

“We can only speculate about the condition she was in,” he said. “That’s the hardest thing for us right now — how she suffered. We can’t understand.”

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lee.romney@latimes.com

joseph.serna@latimes.com

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