Five young people were killed in a fiery single-vehicle crash on the Santa Ana (5) Freeway in Irvine Saturday.
“They were burned beyond recognition,” said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi.
Concialdi also said paramedics rushed a sixth person, a male teenager, to Mission Hospital in serious condition. That victim said the carload of teens had been returning from a late-night trip to at Knott’s Berry Farm, according to broadcast reports.
A freelance videographer at the scene said a California Highway Patrol sergeant told him the victims appeared to be in their mid-to-late teens.
No identification was immediately made available as to the age, gender or hometown of the victims.
The vehicle also ignited a small brush fire, he said.
The quarter-acre brush fire was put out within 30 minutes, Concialdi said.
—City News Service
The crash occurred on the 5 Freeway at the Route 133 interchange at 2:12 a.m. a CHP dispatcher said.
Video from the scene showed an older BMW, burned, perched atop a retaining wall but beneath the freeway.
Seven hours after the crash, three lanes of southbound Interstate 5 remained closed as investigators worked.