JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The northbound side of the Buckman Bridge was shut down for several hours for the duration of Friday morning’s hurry hour due to the fact of a fiery crash involving two tractor-trailers and a box truck.
The box truck was carrying industrial cleaners, and because firefighters made use of water to douse the blaze, the city’s biohazard workforce was identified as in to make confident the harmful substance didn’t run off into the St. Johns River, in accordance to a Jacksonville Fire and Rescue spokesperson.
“Some tanks that were popping and exploding — crews had to offer with,” Capt. Eric Prosswimmer described. “So the hazmat crew was referred to as in to support, they introduced in PKP, an extinguishing agent that can assist us in placing the hearth out. The issue now is there is water runoff. It’s truly not on the bridge. It’s just right before the drinking water starts with some of the runoff managing toward the bridge.”
The city’s hazmat workforce was identified as to block the runoff of foam and other chemicals from contaminating the river.
Prosswimmer claimed no a person was transported from the crash, which was at the commencing of the northbound facet of the bridge. The to start with alert of the crash went out from Jacksonville police just prior to 6:30 a.m. The road reopened just right before 11:30 a.m.
According to the Florida Freeway Patrol, a tractor-trailer was ready on the bridge for a tow truck following a prior wreck Thursday evening and it was rear-ended by the box truck when the driver fell asleep at the wheel.
“The guy was truly asleep in his truck on the shoulder of the highway waiting around on a wrecker and a box truck collided with him, resulting in hearth,” Prosswimmer claimed.
Debris from the collision hit the front of another tractor-trailer.
“This was a crash that could have been averted, but we are grateful no just one was hurt, but unfortunately we do have considerable street closure,” FHP Learn Sgt. Dylan Bryan mentioned.
The 1st semi and the box truck were being engulfed in flames following the collision, the report mentioned.
Prosswimmer said the vans caught fireplace first on effect then the flames distribute to the cab of the truck, which contained the diesel.
Just one of them reignited hrs later and experienced to be put out again.
“It’s not uncommon. Generally what you are hunting at is we’ve, in addition to the car, the chemicals, you’ve acquired a ton of plastics, then you have obtained metals that are also flammable, you have received flammable metals in the steering column, the wheels are normally flammable metals,” Prosswimmer explained.
The smoke was so bad at one particular level that it closed a person of the lanes on the southbound side of the bridge also.
Traffic from I-295 on the northbound aspect was diverted on to San Jose Boulevard just before the bridge for several hrs.
“We have to make sure all the things is cleaned up and secure. There’s slick on the roadway. You really don’t want further more accidents as a result. It is not anything we can hurry through,” Prosswimmer claimed of why it took so prolonged to reopen the highway.
Prosswimmer reported extinguishing the hearth and eventually reopening the bridge was the final result of a crew effort and hard work among his section, JSO, FHP, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Environmental Resource Administration Office.
“All in all, this went seriously easily. The actuality that we had no accidents, that no person was transported,” Prosswimmer mentioned. “In my e-book, human lifestyle is of course our to start with and foremost worry.”
Bryan mentioned yet another difficulty for the duration of the cleanup turned secondary crashes due to the fact of onlookers.
“That’s rubbernecking persons not having to pay notice to the highway. We see this each individual day as crashes arise,” Bryan explained. “It’s important to fork out consideration to the street, individuals attempting to get from position A to point B. We want to make sure they do so properly.”
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