Oct 22, 2008 11:58 pm US/Pacific
I-880 Reopens 13 Hours After Tanker Explosion
OAKLAND (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ―
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A tow truck prepares to remove the burned wreckage of a gasoline tanker from southbound I-880 in Oakland Thursday afternoon.
CBS
Southbound Interstate 880 through Oakland reopened Wednesday night after being shut down for more than 13 hours following a massive fire caused by an exploded gasoline tanker during the morning rush hour.
The inferno damaged just the surface of the roadway but did not cause structural damage, according to California Department of Transportation Director Will Kempton.
He said that stretch of the Nimitz freeway carries roughly 220,000 commuters a day.
After removing the blackened shell of the tanker that sat upside-down and smoldering on 880 near Fifth Avenue until the afternoon, Caltrans crews worked to grind down the concrete and put in temporary asphalt to get the highway reopened.
A sedan driver lost control and the car hit the center divider of the freeway before colliding with the tanker about 6:15 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.
The impact from the crash ignited 8,600 gallons of gas being hauled by the truck — sending flames high into the air. At times, the flames were so large that several buildings alongside the freeway were threatened.
Oakland firefighters using foam were finally able to put the fire out after battling it for a little over an hour.
The truck driver and three car passengers were able to escape the crash unhurt and no other injuries were reported, CHP Officer Trent Cross said.
The truck driver works for Kenan Advantage Group, which federal transportation regulators told CBS 5 has a better-than-average safety record.
Although absorbant was placed on the roadway to soak up the leaking fuel and storm drains were sealed off, the U.S. Coast Guard said the incident resulted in a thin oily sheen in the Oakland-Alameda Estuary between Coast Guard Island and the Oakland area.
"By everybody's account, the (overall) impact is minimal," Oakland fire Battalion Chief William Towner said.
The crash and ensuing flames brought the morning commute in the East Bay to a grinding halt, with hundreds of motorists stuck on I-880, waiting to be rerouted off the highway - which was initially closed in both directions.
The CHP turned around vehicles and advised them to take an alternate route such as Interstate 580, which was opened to big rigs during the closure.
By 9:30 a.m., the CHP had reopened northbound lanes and traffic was crawling through the area. Traffic headed in the southbound direction was taken off at 16th Avenue.
Bay Area Rapid Transit, unaffected by the fire, ran their trains at full capacity during the morning commute and saw an eight percent increase in ridership for the day.
"We tried to make the trains as long as possible to accommodate the extra riders," BART spokesman Linton Johnson said. "Every train car that we had that was available was out on the system."
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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