Orange County Jet Fuel Spill Jams Freeway

A double-tanker truck flipped during the height of morning rush hour Tuesday on the rain-slick Orange Freeway in Anaheim, spilling more than 3,000 gallons of jet fuel, causing the evacuation of several nearby businesses and snarling traffic for five miles in both directions.

“It was incredibly messed up,” said Thomas Roe, owner of a body shop near the accident scene. Roe said it took him two hours to fight his way to work. “It was just deadlocked everywhere,” he said.

Troubled Morning

The 8 a.m. accident between the Riverside Freeway and Orangethorpe Avenue was just the worst episode during a troubled morning in Orange County, as a rush-hour storm that would eventually drop half an inch of rain turned the drive to work into a motoring nightmare.

Authorities reported numerous fender-benders and traffic jams throughout the county but no major injury accidents. The rain that prompted the grueling commute had ended by late afternoon, easing the burden for many homebound motorists. That reprieve is expected to continue today, with forecasters predicting sunshine and temperatures rising into the high 70s.

But even the dry afternoon weather Tuesday failed to help matters much on the Orange Freeway.

Efforts to clean up the tanker spill extended late into the afternoon. The freeway’s five northbound lanes were opened about 4:40 p.m., but the afternoon commute was already well under way by then, officials said.

Crews from the Anaheim and Orange County hazardous-materials teams worked through the morning and into the afternoon to mop up the mess left when the tanker truck rolled over, shutting down the northbound lanes of the freeway and prompting authorities to divert traffic onto surface streets in the area.

Despite heavy traffic at the time of the crash, no other cars were involved, and the truck’s driver, identified as Bernard Smith, 36, of Carson, escaped without serious injury, said Officer Keith Thornhill, a California Highway Patrol spokesman.

“I think we’re very, very fortunate,” said Capt. Hank Raymond, Orange County fire spokesman. “We’re lucky it wasn’t some major hazardous material too. It could have been a lot worse.”

Smith told authorities he was steering the tanker truck from the eastbound Riverside Freeway onto the northbound Orange Freeway at about 20 m.p.h. in a light rain when the accident occurred, Thornhill said.

As the truck pulled onto the Orange Freeway, a car traveling north swerved in front, prompting Smith to stomp on his brakes, the truck driver told authorities. The brakes locked, causing the big rig to weave and then flip on its side, sending the rear tank-car sliding on its back into a storm drainage ditch at the side of the highway.

3,000 Gallons of Fuel

Authorities said about 3,000 gallons of JP-5 jet fuel leaked from the two big tanks, which hold about 4,000 gallons each. Nearly all of the fuel spilled from the rear tank, seeping out at between 50 and 80 gallons a minute, authorities said.

Firefighters built a dam of sand and absorbent pads around the tanker, which was still on the freeway. Special vacuum rigs were called in to suck up the fuel that spilled into the storm drain.

Authorities said most of the fuel gathered in a settling pond in the drainage ditch, but a hazardous-materials team was dispatched to clean up some that had meandered as far south as Ball Road, more than two miles from the accident.

The northbound lanes of the freeway were closed by authorities almost immediately after the accident, trapping hundreds of motorists for more than an hour in a traffic jam that spread nearly five miles south to Orangewood Avenue. As they waited, people jumped from their cars to ogle the tanker wreckage.

On the southbound side, meanwhile, traffic backed up even farther, as authorities closed some lanes near the crash and motorists in other lanes took the opportunity to gawk at the wreck as they rolled by. Authorities said the jam stretched more than five miles north to Tonner Canyon Road.

Eventually, CHP officers advised the stranded motorists to turn around on the freeway and head off the on-ramps to nearby surface streets. Meanwhile, other drivers were diverted onto the Riverside Freeway.

About 100 workers from a cluster of small businesses in three or four warehouses near the freeway were evacuated after the crash as preparations were made to drain fuel from the upended tanker truck.

Roe, owner of Vic’s Auto Body Salon, said police ordered everyone out of the area shortly before noon. “It was no big deal,” Roe said. “I ran some errands, and the other guys took an extra long lunch.”

Although the jet fuel is only about as explosive as diesel gasoline, crews exercised caution during the mop-up. A special aircraft firefighting rig was called in from John Wayne Airport and sprayed foam onto the upended truck. Meanwhile, crews drilled holes into the tank trailers and pumped out the remaining fuel.

While the northbound lanes were already closed, the CHP also shut down the southbound lanes of the freeway for about two hours while the tanks were emptied, a process that firefighters said was necessary so the truck could be moved. The truck is owned by Southern Tank Lines, a Wilmington-based firm that regularly hauls jet fuel.

Orange County fire spokesman Raymond said authorities were particularly concerned about fuel vapors igniting. The blanket of foam, he said, helped reduce that threat.

“When it was raining this morning, the vapors dissipated,” Raymond said. “When it stopped raining, and it started getting pretty again, that’s when vapors became readily apparent to us.”

Monitoring the cleanup effort were authorities from a variety of agencies, among them the state Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Coast Guard and county health department.

Although the truck accident on the Orange Freeway caused by far the worst traffic problem of the day, other roads and freeways also suffered snarled conditions.

Alton Parkway was closed for nearly two hours between the Santa Ana Freeway and Muirlands Boulevard due to a ruptured gas line, Irvine Police Lt. Al Muir said. The closure tied up traffic in the area and onto the San Diego Freeway before the line, inadvertently broken by Irvine Water District workers, was repaired and the road reopened about 3:30 p.m., Muir said.

Times staff writers Mary Lou Fulton and Sonni Efron contributed to this report.