Thread: Tanker fire destroys part of MacArthur Maze ( SF, CA )

Tanker fire destroys part of MacArthur Maze
2 freeways closed near Bay Bridge
Demian Bulwa and Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, April 29, 2007

OAKLAND -- Huge leaping flames from an exploding gasoline tanker melted the steel underbelly of a highway overpass in the East Bay's MacArthur Maze early this morning, causing it to collapse onto the roadway below and virtually ensuring major traffic problems for weeks to come.

The elevated roadway that fell carried eastbound traffic from the Bay Bridge onto Interstates 580 and 980 and state Highway 24. It draped like a blanket over a roadway below, a connector from southbound I-80 to I-880 that also was severely damaged.

The single-vehicle crash occurred on the lower roadway when the tanker, loaded with 8,600 gallons of unleaded gasoline and heading from a refinery in Benicia to a gas station on Hegenberger Road in Oakland, hit a guardrail at 3:41 a.m.

Engineers said the green steel frame of the I-580 overpass and the bolts holding the frame together began to melt and bend in the intense heat -- and that movement pulled the roadbed off its supports.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Trent Cross said the driver of the tanker, James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland (Yolo County), was traveling too fast in a 50 mph zone when his truck overturned and burst into flames.

Mosqueda, an employee of Sabek Transportation in San Francisco for 10 months, got out of the truck on his own after it overturned and hailed a taxi that took him to Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, witnesses and police said.

He has been transferred to the burn unit at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco, where his father said he was "doing OK" this afternoon, having sustained burns on his face, neck and hands. The family expected Mosqueda to remain hospitalalized two or three more days.

Cross said Mosqueda had a valid driver's license and there is no indication he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs when he crashed.

Oakland firefighters, the first public safety workers on the scene, arrived with two engines at 3:55 a.m., Capt. Cedric Price said. "We didn't know it was a tanker truck that was involved. As soon as that was established we immediately upgraded to a large scale incident response team and added two more engines and two trucks," Price said.

Firefighters immediately noticed the upper connector ramp was buckling and seven minutes after they arrived -- at 4:02 a.m. -- it collapsed, Price said. Now there were no more structures threatened, the firefighters' approach shifted. "With no structures or lives in jeopardy and with 8,000 gallons of flammable fuel involved, you're basically better off letting it burn itself out," said Price.

Firefighters used only water to control the blaze, which took about two hours, he said. Had there been lives at risk, firefighters would have used foam to fight the blaze, but it would have run off into the nearby Bay water, polluting it. "That this didn't happen on a weekday morning might have been the only beauty of it," said Price.

With the help of protective gear and breathing devices, firefighter exposure to the fumes was minimal, according to Price. A total of 29 Oakland Fire Department personnel were on scene as well as one engine from Emeryville. A smaller crew of Oakland firefighters remained there through the early evening to watch for potential dangers.

Jennifer Summers, 36, was driving from her costume design job in San Francisco home to the Oakland hills just before 4 a.m. when she saw black smoke and realized the freeway was on fire. She quickly pulled off and looped around so she could see what was going on.

When she got out of her car, flames were shooting into the sky over multiple layers of freeway and she could hear loud crackling and explosions. "There were bright, bright orange flames and they were huge," said Summers. "There were cars driving through the flames. The first cars slowed down like they didn't know what to do and then kept going. I was shocked."

Summers said dozens of vehicles stopped to watch the spectacle, which ended with a horrendous crash as the freeway collapsed in a torrent of fire and rubble. "There was nothing you could do," she said. "I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, this is going to be a nightmare with the traffic problems we already have.' "

Isaac Rodriguez, a 53-year-old sanitation supervisor who works the graveyard shift at East Bay Municipal Utility District's sewage treatment plant, said his supervisor called him about 3:45 a.m. and told him to leave work because of a nearby explosion.

Rodriguez went outside with a co-worker and saw the I-880 connector about 50 feet above him engulfed in fire with flames leaping up to the I-580 connector above that. "It was massive," Rodriguez said. "I saw movement and there was a man up there. I started talking to the guy. Are you the truck driver? 'Yes.' He said, 'I'm burned. I got out as soon as I could.' ''

The driver seemed disoriented. "It looked at one time he was walking toward the truck again. I believe he was in shock,'' Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said he regretted not thinking to send a vehicle up to get the injured man. He and a coworker stood for some 40 minutes watching the freeway burn. "It looked like a big slab of plastic because it was melted. It's made of steel and concrete and it was bent at both angles of the pillar. It really looked fake. ... It was an event last night that I'm not going to forget for a long time. It was incredible because it was a roar.

No sign of the truck remains at the scene. One Caltrans worker there early this morning held up his thumb and forefinger an inch apart to describe how big the tanker is now.

John Goodwin, a spokesman for the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the maze is one of the worst spots for traffic in the Bay Area. "Westbound 80 is already the most congested route in the Bay Area, and it has been for many years," said Goodwin. "Also, the route coming off the Bay Bridge eastbound from Treasure Island is number 10 on the regional congestion list, and with 580 gone there will be a huge impact on that already-congested route."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to announce this evening that some Bay Area transit agencies will offer free rides tomorrow.

Goodwin anticipates that the impacts of the latest disaster will extend to roads far beyond the East Bay. "This really strikes at the very center of the Bay Area freeway network," he said, predicting the closure of the two overpassess will "have a ripple effect" across the region.

"It will put more traffic on the San Mateo Bridge, the Golden Gate and the Richmond-San Rafael bridge," Goodwin said.

Some 35,000 cars travel the two-lane I-880 connector each day, and 45,000 cars use the I-580 connector, which is three lanes, said Caltrans Director Will Kempton.

Kempton said rebuilding the I-580 connector will cost tens of millions of dollars. The extent of the damage to the I-880 connector cannot be determined, he said, until the debris is cleared off. "Initial indications are that it has been severely damaged," Kempton said "It will obviously need some work."

This wasn't the first major crash to clog the crucial traffic corridor through Oakland. On Feb. 5, 1995, a tanker loaded with liquefied gas crashed and burned on the MacArthur Maze, killing the driver, injuring 10 other people and creating an all-day traffic jam.

Witnesses said at the time that the tanker, which was changing lanes when it skidded out of control, created a 100-foot-tall fireball after it crashed on the connector between westbound I-80 and eastbound I-580, which is immediately northeast of the scene of today's crash.

The 1989 collapse of the Cypress Structure during the Loma Prieta earthquake caused years of detours and traffic problems in the same area.

( continues )

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...AGVOPHQU46.DTL

Traffic on the affected roadways remains light this afternoon, apparently because many drivers canceled plans that would have required driving. But major backups are expected, especially tonight when the Golden State Warriors take on the Dallas Mavericks tonight in the fourth game of their playoff series and Oakland's Oracle Arena.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, in a press conference in San Diego Sunday, said that he has spoken to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's staff about the crash aftermath -- and particularly how to accomplish repairs quickly.

Newsom said state officials are "fastracking" the repairs by using some of the same shortcuts that got Interstate 10 rebulit quickly after Southern California's Northridge earthquake in 1994.

As many as 40 people stood gawking at the disaster scene at various points today. Most stood in a Caltrans construction area under the freeway and took pictures. Some said they had heard what sounded like train cars crashing together in the nearby freight yard this morning before they saw what had happened.

Everyone agreed that the weekday commute is going to be horrible. "It's just going to be outrageous," said Gary Lewis of Oakland. "You'll have all this traffic merging at one time."

"They need to go back to the drawing board," said Sandra Moore of Oakland, who had driven over the collapsed section the night before. "I'm sorry this had to happen, but this is a wake-up call."

Larry Gordon of Oakland, was riveted by the scene of scorched steel and hundreds of yards of melted pavement. "It's incredible, amazing," he said. "If fire can do that a steel structure like this, what can the next earthquake do?"

Henry Geronimo, 44, of West Oakland, watched the cleanup operation from a fence along Mandela Parkway. "Coming home is going to be a big big problem," said Geronimo, who commutes to work in San Francisco as draftsman. "Do you know how many terrorists are looking at this? They're getting ideas."

Wanda Realegeno, a 42-year-old Richmond resident, said she isn't looking forward to her commute to school near Oakland Coliseum, which normally takes her onto the I-800 connector that the truck was on when it crashed. "This is amazing," she said. "It's almost as bad as the earthquake. I'm just thinking: how am I going to get to work tomorrow? I was trying to figure out my path."
More pictures : http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/art...PHQU46.DTL&o=2


Paging Dr. Rosie: Did Schwarzenegger Demolish Bay Bridge Interchange?
http://suitablyflip.blogs.com/suitab..._dr_rosie.html

A gasoline tanker caught fire underneath an offramp from the San Francisco Bay Bridge this morning, causing a 250-foot section of the overpass to collapse. That's what they want you to believe, anyway.

Let's look at the facts in the manner taught us by our nation's foremost civil engineer and demolition expert.

-- The overpass was made of concrete and steel rebar. This would mark only the 4th time in history that fire has melted steel. The first 3 of course trace back to the morning of 9/11, when - the government would have you believe - burning jet fuel miraculously managed to weaken steel to the point of bringing down WTC 1, 2, and most notably, WTC 7, which housed secret WorldCom and Enron e-mails.

-- The collapsed section of the so-called MacArthur Maze, which distributes traffic to and from the Bay Bridge, is said to be "draped like a blanket" http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...AGVOPHQU46.DTL over the roadway below (damning images of collapse available here http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/art...PHQU46.DTL&o=2 ), clearly suggesting a controlled, orderly demolition.

-- The driver of the tanker that caused this catastrophic damage (presumably an employee of an as yet unnamed American oil company) managed to walk away from the crash nearly unscathed and reportedly "hailed a taxi" to flee the scene.

-- Below this roadway is housed "a Caltrans property full of equipment being used to rebuild the Bay Bridge."

-- In 2005, a few months after Governor Schwarzenegger hand-picked a new director of Caltrans, the agency came under a wide-ranging investigation, including FBI subpoenas for documents that Caltrans was conveniently unable to find. Documents, perhaps, that were located in the Caltrans facility directly underneath the miraculously collapsing roadway.

-- To date, Schwarzenegger has been curiously silent about these amazing coincidences, further proof of a cover-up.

-- The collapsed section of the interchange connects the San Francisco Bay Bridge (Interstate 80) to Interstate 580.

-- It's Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution that requires candidates for President to be natural born citizens, rendering Schwarzenegger ineligible.

-- 8+0=8; 5+8+0=13; 8+13=21

-- 580-80=500; 5+0+0=5

-- 21, 5; Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5...

Coincidence? Numbers don't lie.

Okay, aspiring 4/29 Truthers, let's remember the creed.

lets start here
ok…go slow
remember 2 breathe
use google

Hey Rosie - Fire can melt steel. In an event strikingly similar to what happened at the World Trade Center, a raging fire caused the collapse of a steel and concrete highway structure in San Francisco.

Really. It got hot and collapsed.

Just like the Twin Towers did.

Imagine that.

Also happened in Houston yesterday. Will Big Ro blame Bushco for that one, too?


Tanker driver killed in crash took illegal shortcut
Fiery crash that killed him occurred after he drove load of fuel inside 610
By PAIGE HEWITT
April 29, 2007, 3:56PM


The tanker-truck driver who died in an explosive crash in northeast Houston early Friday morning, causing a two-month closure of part of one of Houston's major interchanges, had taken a shortcut that violates a city ordinance. "He was in a zone where he shouldn't have been," said HPD officer David Mireles, who worked the scene early Friday morning. "He was cutting in through the zone, as far as regulating hazardous materials."

Houston's ordinance prohibits the transportation of hazardous materials inside Loop 610, unless a driver is picking up from or delivering cargo to a company inside the Loop, Mireles said.

Luis Perez, 39, who for two months had been a driver for a Bay City company that officials have not yet identified, had just picked up a full or nearly full load of about 3,400 gallons of diesel and about 4,600 gallons of gasoline from a pump station on Houston's northeast side, outside the Loop, police said.

Perez, who apparently was not from Houston but moved to the Spring Branch area recently, was delivering to a convenience store in Liberty County, police said.

Mireles said Perez picked up the fuel at the pump station near Cavalcade and U.S. 59 North at 11:45 p.m. Thursday. He traveled south on U.S. 59 North, drove past Loop 610, thereby violating the ordinance, and shortly after midnight attempted the relatively sharp interchange to I-10 East, Mireles said.

Perez lost control of the 18-wheeler, which rolled, crashed into the concrete barrier and exploded, igniting the truck, killing Perez and causing damage estimated at $500,000 to $1 million, Mireles said. "We don't know exact details, whether he was driving too fast," Mireles said. "He could have fallen asleep. ... Maybe he was running late. I don't know. Maybe he figured it was midnight, there's no traffic, there's no danger to the public."

He said Perez, who has held a commercial driver license in at least four states and has had over recent years a rather typical citation history for truck drivers, had completed a monthlong training that included the rules on transporting hazardous materials in Houston.

His shortcut, Mireles said, saved Perez only three or four miles and five to 15 minutes, said Mireles, who added that Perez had probably driven the improper route on other occasions.

Mireles said the owner of the company that employed Perez and owns the truck was being "very cooperative" and that the owner indicated its insurance company will pay for the interchange repair. "I think the owner realizes he's in a predicament," Mireles said. "He knows it's going to fall in his lap. He feels bad for what has happened. He knows he's going to have to pay. Whether it's the negligence of the driver, he's ultimately responsible."

Mireles said the Texas Department of Public Safety is expected to conduct a compliance audit on the company. The repair work is expected to take about two months, said Teresa Curry, head of HPD's traffic enforcement division.

She said the damage to the truck is so extensive, there is little if any physical evidence left that would allow a determination as to whether there may have been a problem with the vehicle.

HPD's truck enforcement division, which employs 12 full-time officers, issues about 500 citations monthly, mostly for brake problems, to drivers passing through Houston. Officials are studying how many commercial trucks transit the city every day. The most recent numbers show about 250,000 trucks traveled through daily in 2000, she said. About 60 percent of the drivers who are stopped are in compliance, she said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/4758350.html

Bay Area commuters face nightmare
By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 24 minutes ago

OAKLAND, Calif. - The threat of a nightmarish morning commute led many Bay Area residents to use public transportation Monday, one day after a fiery tanker crash collapsed a heavily trafficked section of freeway.

Westbound traffic into the city largely flowed as usual Monday morning, except for drivers slowing on interchange lanes headed to the Bay Bridge to look at the damage. But officials warned the afternoon drive would bring bigger headaches as traffic leaving the city is diverted away from the collapsed eastbound segment.

The elevated section of highway that carries motorists from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to a number of freeways was destroyed early Sunday when the heat of a burning gasoline tanker truck weakened part of one overpass, crumpling it onto another.

Many commuters avoided peak hour congestion by getting a head start or leaving later than usual, said Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesman Jim Allison. "I did make a little effort to get here a little earlier today because of the freeway melting, or whatever you want to call it," Mark Griffey, who took a BART train into the city, told KTVU-TV.

"I'm mad," said Crystal McSwain, who switched from a bus to a more expensive BART train to avoid the roads. "My life is upside down, and I don't know how long it's going to take."

Authorities predicted that overall the crash would cause the worst disruption for commuters since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Bay Bridge itself. The sight of the soaring freeway twisted into a fractured mass of steel and concrete was reminiscent of that quake's damage. "The most worrisome thing is the afternoon commute coming out of San Francisco toward the maze because the traffic from the Bay Bridge fans out from across three freeways," said Jeff Weiss, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. "Taking away two-thirds of the capacity is really going to cause a bottleneck."

Nearly 75,000 vehicles used the damaged portion of the road every day. But because the accident occurred where three highways converge, authorities said it could cause problems for hundreds of thousands of commuters. State transportation officials said 280,000 commuters take the Bay Bridge into San Francisco each day.

To encourage motorists to switch to public transit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger authorized free passage Monday on ferries, buses and the BART rail system. Extra trains were added and bus and ferry operators also expanded service. Parking lots at outlying rail stations filled up earlier than usual for the morning commute and some trains appeared more crowded than usual, but BART officials said overall ridership did not appear greater than normal.

Transportation officials said it could take months to repair the damaged interchanges. Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency to speed up cleanup and rebuilding efforts.

Despite the fire, the truck's driver walked away with only second-degree burns. James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, went to a gas station and called a taxi for a ride to a hospital, California Highway Patrol Officer Trent Cross said.

The investigation was still under way, but the California Highway Patrol believes Mosqueda may have been speeding. Investigators were examining scrape marks and other evidence at the scene, CHP Officer Les Bishop said.

Investigators do not suspect drugs or alcohol were involved, Bishop said.

Mosqueda was being treated at a San Francisco hospital. "We are relieved that James is alive and in stable condition," his family said in a statement.

The crash occurred on the MacArthur Maze, a network of ramps and interchanges at the edge of downtown Oakland and about a half-mile from the Bay Bridge toll plaza. Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees, softening and buckling steel beams and melting bolts, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said.

The cost of the repairs would likely run into the tens of millions of dollars, and the state was seeking federal disaster aid, Kempton said.

___

Associated Press writer Tom Verdin in San Diego contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070430/...rk29AfUU6s0NUE



Slideshow : http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070429/4...T74n_a0gFH2ocA