Truck fire clogs traffic, causes headaches for some businesses
Some neighborhood business owners described the scene as chaotic after a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline overturned and caught fire Saturday morning, closing a portion of the northbound 5 Freeway north of downtown for several hours.
Many motorists exited the freeway at Riverside Drive after the 10:30 a.m. accident.
“We didn’t hear an explosion, we just saw the fire go crazy,” said Hugo Robles, a supervisor at a cable company on Riverside. Robles said he tried to get a closer look at the fire, but when he turned onto Ripple Street, which also runs alongside the freeway, he saw people running in the opposite direction.
Paul Kim, the manager of Won’s Market, said customers told him the fire started with an explosion that “sounded like a bomb.”
Some businesses closed their doors, and portions of Riverside Drive were closed to traffic.
“It’s terrible right now,” said Kim, noting that customers could not access his business in their cars. “Take a look outside. No one can drive.”
Inside Kim’s store, customer Billy Wright said he hopped on his bike to check out the fire from a nearby bike path. He said he was able to shoot some close-up video of the blaze, which sent large plumes of black smoke billowing into the air.
“It was not what I was expecting to see at all,” Wright said. “I was expecting a big fire, but I wasn’t expecting the river to be on fire.”
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. Firefighters were 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.
The accident occurred at a transition road tunnel at the interchange of the 2 and 5 freeways, the California Highway Patrol reported.
As of 5:15 p.m., 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, officials said. The wreck and closure will probably not be cleared for at least several hours.
No one was hurt, fire officials said.
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