Fire Triggers 8-Hour Traffic Jam on the 405
A stubborn fire Friday on a bridge over the San Diego Freeway in Huntington Beach snarled southbound traffic past the Los Angeles County line in a commuting nightmare that lasted more than eight hours.
The fire, which began at 2:30 p.m. inside the overpass at Edinger Avenue, forced California Highway Patrol officers to close two southbound freeway lanes as well as the Beach Boulevard and Center Avenue onramps to make way for fire and emergency vehicles, CHP Officer Mark Reeves said.
“The Fire Department was having a hard time putting it out,” Reeves said of the fire, which continued to burn despite repeated dousing with water and foam.
Southbound traffic backed up past the San Gabriel River Freeway, police said.
The cause of the blaze, which occurred either inside or behind an electrical vault inside the bridge, was still being investigated late Friday, Caltrans spokeswoman Gail Smith said.
“Inside the bridge, they have cells where they put electrical vaults to make the bridge lighter and help support the weight,” Smith said. “We’re not sure if the fire is electrical or if someone, like a transient person, started a fire in there.”
The freeway traffic tangle was not expected to end until midnight, officials said.
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