GORHAM (AP) – Firefighters dousing the flames of a burning car at a southern Maine gravel pit Wednesday morning found two bodies burned beyond recognition.

It will be up to the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta to confirm their identities, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. The burned-out vehicle, with the bodies still inside, was transported on a flatbed truck to the state crime laboratory in Augusta, McCausland said.

A motorist on his way to work spotted the smoke from the car just after dawn Wednesday.

The car, which appeared to be a small Ford station wagon, was in a parking area about a half-mile from Route 237, said Danny Shaw, co-owner of Shaw Brothers, an excavation company that operated the gravel pit.

“I got there a quarter past five and the car was fully engulfed. You couldn’t get near it, it was so hot,” he said.

It wasn’t until Gorham firefighters arrived that the bodies were discovered, he said.

We never dreamed there was somebody inside,” he said. “This is a strange one.”