Amy Graff
SFGate, San Francisco
(TNS)
Aug. 19—Toxic fumes wafted from a Tesla commercial semitruck that caught fire on Interstate 80 near Colfax on Monday afternoon, with flames spreading to nearby vegetation and officials fully closing the highway for hours. At 5 p.m., Caltrans reopened just the westbound lanes to all traffic, followed by the eastbound lanes at 8:30 p.m.
Caltrans reported a complete closure of Interstate 80, between Colfax and state Route 20, shortly before 2 p.m. Mary Eldridge, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said the fire was started by hazardous materials within the vehicle’s lithium ion batteries and fumes from the chemicals are dangerous to anyone within a third of a mile of the fire.
“As long as the vehicle has vapor coming off it, that is extremely toxic,” Eldridge said over the phone. “We don’t want anyone driving by with open windows. We don’t want any of that getting into vehicles, so this fire has to be done before the road can reopen.”
Eldridge said the semitruck, which is an 18-wheeler and can carry up to 80,000 pounds, went off the road. She said an investigation will look into why the vehicle veered and whether the fire started before it went off the road or after.
The vegetation fire has been named the Blue Fire because it’s located near the Blue Canyon exit on I-80. The fire is small with minimal spread as aircraft were quick to dump fire retardant over the area, Eldridge said.
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