Key Highway Collapses After Tanker Truck Goes Up In Flames
We're still sorting out what happened
Videos of a fire under the I95 that took down a bridge are popping up all over the internet.
One of those videos was taken by Lisa Taormino of Langhorne, Pa. She said she was on her way to work and, by the time she realized the smoke and flames were on the highway, it was too late.
She was surrounded and her car dipped down into the road.
“You can see flames coming up on the right-hand side through all this black smoke… and the left-hand side was worse,” Taormino said. “But the car in front of me really dipped down far.”
Taormino can be heard saying, “Oh my God, the road’s falling,” while traveling past the scene. — ABC7NY
The question is — what went wrong?
Interstate 95, the main roadway between the East Coast’s two largest cities, New York City and Philadelphia, will be closed for months after a tanker fire caused a section to collapse, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Sunday.
An elevated section of northbound lanes in northeast Philadelphia collapsed, trapping the tanker truck and whoever was inside beneath 500 tons of concrete, steel and rubble, about 6:20 a.m., Shapiro said at a news conference.
He called the scene “a remarkably devastating site.”
Corresponding elevated southbound lanes were found to lack structural integrity, prompting closure of the entire freeway, he said.
No deaths or injuries were reported, but first responders had yet to get to the tanker truck or any possible occupants, officials said. The fire was still smoldering but otherwise under control, they said.
[…]
Shapiro said the tanker was carrying some kind of petroleum product.
There were 8,500 gallons of product in the tanker, a Coast Guard spokesperson said. The Coast Guard sent a boat to the scene to examine the impact on the water, but it seems no gasoline has made it to the Delaware River. — NBC
As for what started the blaze in the first place, or whether the driver made it out alive? We don’t yet have any answers.
Sources Cited:
ABC7
