Limo Driver Was on Phone Before Deadly Bridge Fire, Report Says

The driver of a limousine that caught fire and killed five women on the San Mateo Bridge in May was on the phone fighting with his estranged wife shortly before the blaze, according to a report published by the San Jose Mercury News.

Few details have emerged to explain what caused a 1999 Lincoln Town Car to go up in flames or why half the occupants, women celebrating the new marriage of 31-year-old Neriza Fojas, could not get out.

Neriza Fojas, 31, and four friends, including Dublin resident Jenni Balon, who were celebrating Fojas' new marriage died in the limo fire on May 4. Four other women, three from the East Bay and one from San Jose, survived with injuries. The driver was unharmed.

[Related article: Remembering Limo Fire Victim Jenni Balon: Live Each Day the Best You Can]

Video and photos from the incident, which was reported to the California Highway Patrol at 10:05 p.m. that night, show smoke and flames engulfed the rear of the vehicle.

Orville "Ricky" Brown was reportedly talking on his cell phone just before the fire broke out.

At one point, Brown even turned up the volume so the nine women riding in back couldn't hear their arguing, according to the newspaper.

"The music was really loud. And I kept yelling, 'I can't hear you. Turn it down,' " Rachel "Raquel" Hernandez-Brown told the Mercury News. "I said, 'You're not paying attention. You know, like, get off the phone. Stop calling me," she remembered telling him. "I'd hate to have a limo driver like you."

The new details, revealed in a lengthy interview at Hernandez-Brown's San Jose home, raise questions about whether Orville Brown was too distracted to react quickly when one of the passengers began banging on the closed partition to alert him that the 1999 Lincoln Town Car was filling with smoke.

Hernandez-Brown said he was upset and trying to make up after a violent outburst investigated by police earlier in the day.