Key Interstate Link Partially Reopened After Inferno 4/5/2004
A March 25 accident on an Interstate 95 bridge in Bridgeport, Conn., resulted in a conflagration that shut the highway down for three days before swift-acting crews reopened northbound lanes, with southbound lanes expected to reopen by April 1. Many support beams of the steel bridge, which was being widened, were deformed by the fire.
The accident occurred around 7:45 p.m., when an automobile struck an 18-wheel tanker truck carrying 9,000 gallons of #2 fuel oil in the southbound lanes, say state police. The truck crashed into a Jersey barrier and the tank ruptured. "The tanker opened up and spilled product on the highway," says Michael A. Maglione, chief of the Bridgeport Fire Dept. "We think cars passing through the product created a mist that found an ignition point, which created a fireball on top of the highway." Burning oil also ran down storm drains onto a two-lane local access road and began heating the bridges steel girders. "They were glowing orange and sagging 3 ft to 4 ft," says Maglione.