MIAMI – Police have identified a woman who died after she crashed her car into a wall in Brickell, setting her car and four others on fire.
Miami police spokeswoman Frederica Burden said Valeria Lopez, 23, was speeding east on Southwest Third Avenue Friday morning. She said Lopez struck a center median while approaching Southwest 15th Street, which caused her to blow out her left front tire and then crash into the wall.
The crash ruptured the fuel cell of Lopez's Lexus, causing the car to become engulfed in flames.
"The first car caught on fire and we heard the explosion, like a boom, and then the other caught on fire and it kept on expanding," Andres Zacarias, who heard the crash, told Local 10 News. "The whole part of the building woke us up. We were all in panic (when) we saw the fire right there."
Burden said Lopez was burned to death and was identified through dental records.
No one else was injured in the crash, but four other cars were damaged from the fire.