Nursing Community Creates Memorial Fund for Victims of Deadly Limo Fire

The nursing community has set up a fund to help the families of five women, many who worked as health care providers, who perished in a limo fire on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge on May 4.

The California Nurses Association and National Nurses United have established the CNA Nursing Angels Family Fund where anyone can make a donation to benefit the families of the women who died while celebrating the marriage of Neriza Fojas, 31, of Monterey.%%% The former Bay Area resident was a nurse at the Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno. The five women were killed when a fire erupted in the back of the limo carrying nine women from Alameda to a hotel in Foster City.

Those killed in the blaze included Fojas and Jennifer Balon, 39, of Dublin; Anna Alcantara, 46, of San Lorenzo; Michelle Estrera, 35, of Fresno; and Felomina Geronga, 43, of Alameda.

The survivors of the fire are Jasmin Deguia, 34, of San Jose; Mary Guardiano, 42, of Alameda; Nelia Arellano, 36, of Oakland; and Amalia Loyola, 48, of San Leandro.

Donations can be made at calnurses.org or by calling (510) 273-2200. Eight of the nine women were current or former employees at the Fruitvale Health Care Center in Oakland.

Balon and Alcantara, who has two children, Andrei, 14, and Arianna, 8, were still working at the health center at the time of their deaths. Alcantara's husband Abner, a postal carrier who lives in San Lorenzo, shared his appreciation of the nursing community during this difficult time.

"Thank you to all the nurses for all your support, all your prayers," he said in a statement released by the association today.

The Alameda school community is also stepping up with funds established at two schools where Geronga's son and daughter are enrolled.%%% Alameda's Donald D. Lum Elementary PTA has set up a fund in honor of Geronga and the victims of the deadly blaze. Geronga's 10-year-old son attends the school.

Checks made out to the PTA can be dropped off at the school, located at 1801 Sandcreek Way in Alameda.

Her older daughter is a seventh-grader at the Alameda Community Learning Center, which set up a website where contributions will go to the family. The school is asking people to donate money for hospital, memorial, funeral and other expenses for the family.

As of late Monday morning, nearly $2,500 had been donated. A school administrator this morning said the money is mostly from those at the school, but others in the Bay Area have chipped in.%%% The website to make donations is at https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/p5c2/aclclimomemorialfundraiser.

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