Over the blasting music, limo driver Orville Brown heard someone in the backseat knock on the partition behind him, saying something about smoke. Five dead female bodies were found pressed... (Associated Press) 
 
 San Mateo County firefighters and California Highway Patrol investigate the scene of a limousine fire that killed five passengers on the westbound side of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge in Foster City,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Foster City Fire Department Chief Michael Keefe, left, and Foster City Fire Investigator John Mapes listen to speakers at a news conference at the California Highway Patrol headquarters in Redwood City,... (Associated Press) 
 
 San Mateo County coroner Robert Foucrault speaks at a news conference at the California Highway Patrol headquarters in Redwood City, Calif., Monday, May 6, 2013. Three good Samaritans, including a firefighter, stopped to help. Another motorist who stopped to help pulled open the back door to free the women still trapped inside, but was met with a whoosh of flames. I figured with all that fire that they were gone, man," Brown said. "There were flames everywhere," Brown said. From the first tap on the window until the rear of car became an inferno couldn't have taken more than three minutes, Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle. "In the 21 years I've been with the office -- all deaths are horrific -- but this is just very impactful," San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said. The bride, Fojas, 31, and another friend, Michelle Estrera, both worked as trauma and surgical nurses at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno. "Both were good friends, stellar nurses and excellent mentors who served as preceptors to new nurses," he said. "We are saddened by this horrific event that took the lives of five people, and it happened in one of our cars," he said. A relative of Fojas said the young nurse was preparing to get her master's degree and was planning a large second wedding in the Philippines. Three survivors hospitalized were identified as Jasmine Desguia, 34, of San Jose; Mary Guardiano, 42, of Alameda; and Amalia Loyola, 48, of San Leandro. With a cut visible on her face, an emotional Arellano said she yelled at the driver to stop the car, but he "didn't want to listen." When Brown did finally stop, Arellano says he did nothing to help the women get out of the burning car after he exited. "I bring out my head through the compartment and say, 'help me,'" she said. "It happened fast, it was engulfed so fast,'' said Brown, who escaped without getting hurt. He speculated the limo had an electrical problem, but he didn't know for sure. Maskarich said it was too early in the investigation to say whether overcrowding may have been a factor in the deaths. As flames built in the back, another friend made it through right behind her, but a third began struggling. ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco contributed to this report.
– One of the surviving passengers from the limo fire that killed five women disputes driver Orville Brown's version of events and says he could have done more to help. Gloria Arrellano says she was the first to crawl through the partition after Brown stopped the limo on the San Mateo Bridge. "When he stop the car, he get out from the car, he just get out from the car," she said. "When he get out from that car, he just opened the door, that's all he did. 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 tells ABC7. Arrellano says that after she escaped, she ran back to the vehicle and managed to pull one more friend to safety. After that, "I tried to check if I can pull out one more, but it's already too dark and I can't see anything anymore," she says. Authorities are still investigating how the fire erupted and why the women were unable to escape out the rear doors. Brown speculates that it may have been an electrical problem, reports the San Jose Mercury News. "There are lots of things in limousines that are flammable, from the extra foam to the extra vinyl, wood paneling, all the lighting systems," he says. Officials say the limo had one more passenger than the eight it was authorized to carry, but it's too early to tell whether overcrowding was a factor, the AP notes.