A gas tanker explosion on the 710 Freeway in Bell on Sunday afternoon left the big rig engulfed in flames with plumes of smoke that could be seen for miles. The fire was so massive that all the lanes of the Freeway had to be shut down yesterday.
The northbound lanes reopened on Sunday night, and Caltrans is estimating that all of the southbound lanes will be reopened by 4 p.m. today, according to ABC7. The freeway was so badly burned that the pavement has to be repaved because it was unsafe for cars to drive on the roads. The damage is 120 feet long and across four lanes and the shoulder.
The tanker was carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline when the crash occurred around 3:30 p.m. on the southbound side of the 710 freeway, by the Florence Avenue exit, KTLA reports. Just moments after entering the freeway, the driver, who also had a passenger with him, heard a popping sound.
"He looked in his rear view mirror and he saw that he either lost a tire or experienced a flat in his rear trailer," Officer Juan Galvan with California Highway Patrol told ABC 7. "At that point, he saw that the trailer had overturned."
That's when the tanker became engulfed in flames.
The driver and his passenger managed to escape and only suffered minor bruises, according to NBC Los Angeles. There weren't any other people injured and no other cars were damaged. Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters managed to put out the fire within an hour.
Drivers were stuck on the freeway for hours as crews cleaned up the debris and gasoline from the incident.
Here are videos and photos of the gnarly fire:
Here are some photos from the aftermath of the fire:
