Hazel Park and Area Firefighters Challenged with Large Fire
Tonight a tanker carrying 9,000 gallons of flammable liquids traveling on I-75 was involved in an accident with a Meijer delivery truck. Reports indicate the truck hit a portion of the bridge support and rolled over and ignited in fire. Crews from Hazel Park, Ferndale, Royal Oak, Detroit, and beyond are working to extingusih the fire which is feed by the flammable liquid carried on the tanker vehicle.
Initial reports have indicated that the driver of the two vehicles may have been killed. The fire has caused a portion of the Nine Mile Road bridge to collapse onto the freeway.
A partial evacuation of the area has been conducted and both directions of the freeway will be closed for some time.
Earlier in the day, the Hazel Park Firefighters responded to a house explosion which was unrelated to the incident. As more information becomes available we will let you know.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
UPDATE We just added additional video from the fire. In fact you can see a portion of the bridge collapse on the second video. Also news agencies are reporting that no one was killed at the fire.
Why we’re they attacking it with 5-6 master streams of water? This is a great video of what not to do.
They were keeping it contained so it didn’t spread. That is my guess. I didn’t see a whole lot of foam being directed at the fire, but I was not able to see much of the attack.
Agree. Master streams were likely for cooling. Due to the heat I doubt you could have created more water runoff, it was probably evaporating. Probably couldn’t have gotten foam to the fire intially for the same reason. These are fuel dependent fires – they just burn down to a level where they can be contained or extinguished. Would love to hear from some Hazel Park, Ferndale, Royal Oak or Detroit guys that were there. Always much that can be learned from the guys that were there feeling the heat. Great job guys – glad everyone came home.
Update NEW Video showing early stages of fire, see the video. Also it is reported that a car cutoff the semi’s causing the accident
I work for Madison Heights Fire and we were assigned southbound I 75 North of 9 Mile. Looking back at this fire now there was very little we could do but let this fire burn its self out. There were some foam problems due to a malfunction with one apparatus. I can’t think of a single department in the area that would have handled this any different. We actually were pumping foam, but it was so hot it never had a chance to blanket the fire. Best advice is protect what you can and when the fire starts to burn its self down, then come in with foam lines. This is just my opinion from what I saw.