Backfires Ignite Brush, Creating a Mess on I-5

A series of brush fires ignited by a backfiring pickup truck along Interstate 5 sent plumes of black smoke wafting above traffic and forced the California Highway Patrol to partly closed the freeway for nearly three hours Sunday.

CHP troopers got the first report of fire at 8:40 a.m., and, within eight minutes, closed the southbound lanes at the Encinitas-Carlsbad border, routing motorists onto La Costa Avenue.

Four more fires erupted along a grassy stretch just west of the lanes over a mile-long stretch in Encinitas and Leucadia. The Dodge pickup believed to have started the fires was found abandoned just south of Leucadia. One fire official said the truck had a faulty catalytic converter. The investigation continued Sunday night.

CHP spokesman John Marinez said each of the fires probably started when sparks from the truck’s tailpipe burned stretches of brush on the side of the freeway. Although heavy black smoke drifted into the northbound lanes, those lanes were not closed.

“You couldn’t see out there with all the smoke,” Marinez said.

About 90 minutes after the southbound lanes were closed, the CHP opened the two lanes closest to the freeway median and kept the other two closed until 11:34 a.m. But, by then, traffic was backed up nearly 4 miles to Cannon Road in Carlsbad.

A special traffic alert was called, and Caltrans warned motorists to prepare to stop.

Traffic was still slow at 1 p.m., Marinez said, and it did not help matters that many people were using I-5 to get to the Del Mar Fair at the same time the lanes were reopened.