Los Angeles Firefighters arrived quickly to find a semi-truck tanker with twin tank trailer, both laden with gasoline, parked on the right shoulder of the freeway. The trailer was observed leaking large amounts of the volatile motor fuel onto the roadway and across northbound lanes of travel.
According to witnesses, the tandem tanker truck was involved in a collision with another vehicle, causing damage to valves beneath the truck's fully-laden 4,800 gallon capacity trailer.First arriving LAFD personnel staged their apparatus upwind and uphill from the parked gasoline transporter. With hundreds of gallons of flammable liquid already spilled, firefighters immediately curtailed traffic along the north- and south-bound lanes of the busy interstate highway to prevent ignition and diminish environmental harm.
As law enforcement agencies managed traffic along the miles-long closure that included many on- and off-ramps, transportation officials assisted firefighters who had labored intensely and successfully for nearly an hour, to dike the tide of gasoline before it could enter the storm drain system.
Patrons of a freeway adjacent motel behind a tall sound wall were sheltered in place, as teams of Los Angeles Firefighters stemmed the leaking trailer while applying an absorbent and firefighting foam to ease the cleanup and limit the potential for ignition. No injuries were reported. There were no formal evacuations.
Following the Los Angeles Fire Department's successful mitigation of the primary hazard, control of the scene was returned to California Highway Patrol, State Department of Transportation and County Health Hazardous Materials officials.
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Submitted by Brian Humphrey, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department
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