Trucking news and briefs for Monday, Nov. 13, 2023:
A fire that spread to a storage area under an I-10 overpass in downtown Los Angeles has the interstate shut down in the area until the damage can be assessed and any necessary repairs made.Los Angeles Emergency Management Department
The Los Angeles City Fire Department reported that when arriving at the fire near the 1700 block of East 14th Street, it found a large storage yard with pallets, trailers and vehicles “well involved in fire with buildings exposed.” Wind then pushed the heat and flames under the interstate and across the street, igniting another storage yard under the interstate.
As a result, I-10 is closed in both directions, between the East L.A. interchange and Alameda Street, according to the Los Angeles Emergency Management Department.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) does not yet have a timeline for reopening the interstate.
The following Tweet from Caltrans shows detours around the closed portion of the interstate.
This isn’t the first time a major interstate has shut down after a fire underneath an overpass. A tanker truck overturned under I-95 in Philadelphia in June, catching fire and causing the overpass to collapse. After some “innovative” and “out-of-the-box” moves from PennDOT, the interstate was reopened just 12 days after the shutdown.
