Officials have identified the four people who died Wednesday evening after a vehicle crashed and caught fire in the Granite Bay area of Placer County.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday said the three passengers in the car were all from Granite Bay.

They are Patrick Gainer, 65; Paul Hammack, 53; and Karan Pannu, 45.

The crash was reported around 9:20 p.m. at East Roseville Parkway and Brackenbury Way, the California Highway Patrol Auburn division said. The four people were inside the vehicle that hit a tree and caught fire. KCRA 3 has learned the vehicle is a Mercedes CLS registered out of Roseville.

David Martinez, a spokesperson for the CHP Auburn division, said the car was speeding well above the posted speed limit on East Roseville Parkway. According to a witness, the car then veered out of the lane onto the shoulder, when it collided with a tree near Brackenbury Way.

Several people heard the crash, including Neil Roszkowski who lives nearby.

“It wasn’t a normal sound, just a very, very loud thud,” he said.

When he ran to the intersection, he said the car was engulfed in flames.

“The flames were probably 25-35 feet high,” Roszkowski said. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my entire life.”

Trevor Santa Cruz was also near the intersection when he heard a big boom. He also ran to help. He said one man was already there using a fire extinguisher.

“I ran to the gym to get a fire extinguisher that still didn’t help,” he said.

Santa Cruz said they tried to open the doors but the flames were too intense.

“We were banging on the back of the trunk to see if anyone was moving in there. No one was moving, nothing,” he said.

He also said looking at the scene in daylight, he realizes there was nothing they could have done to save the men.

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