Truck that crashed, caught fire was carrying 8,500 gallons of gas
A tanker truck that overturned and caught fire Saturday morning, closing a portion of the northbound 5 Freeway, was carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline, fire officials said.
A sizable amount of the “burning river of fuel” made its way into storm drains and the Los Angeles River, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey. Initial estimates from fire officials put the quantity of fuel on the tanker at 7,500 gallons.
The grade of the gasoline has not been determined, he said, and firefighters have been deployed to a mile-long stretch of the river to monitor the spill.
The Fire Department is working with local, regional, state and federal environmental authorities to minimize the effect on the river, he said.
Traffic on the 5 Freeway in the Elysian Valley area was stopped Saturday when the tanker caught fire about 10:30 a.m. at a transition road tunnel at the interchange of the 2 and 5 freeways, the California Highway Patrol reported.
The northbound lanes of the 5 Freeway remain closed as California Department of Transportation road crews and engineers with expertise in fire-damaged concrete inspect the site, Humphrey said. The wreck and closure will probably not be cleared for at least several hours, he said.
No one was hurt, fire officials said.
The river remained ablaze four hours after the accident and the initial fire.
“It’s still burning,” said Robert Nashak, a media executive who could see the tanker fire’s smoke from his Silver Lake home and walked down to the edge of the river to see the damage for himself.
“It was like a flame-thrower was aimed at it. It ignited the vegetation on an island in the middle of the river.”
Traffic was snarled throughout Silver Lake as well as across the river in Atwater Village because of street and freeway ramp closures.
It was a struggle for independent film producer CoCo Quinn to travel from Hollywood to pick up her newly adopted dog, Chase, from a Riverside Drive veterinarian who had neutered the animal.
“It took me an hour to get here when it normally would have taken 13 minutes,” Quinn said.
Aside from traffic and delays, there is no threat to fans attending Saturday’s Dodgers game, Humphrey said, adding that the Fire Department is encouraging people to make extra time and have patience in getting to the stadium tonight.
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