SANTA CLARITA, CALIF. — A late-night crash in a Southern California freeway tunnel quickly turned into a fiery, chain- reaction pileup that mangled several trucks, killed at least two people, injured 10 and shut down a key north-south route as the wreckage burned into Saturday.
The crash late the night before involved five to six big rigs and several passenger cars and sent people fleeing for their lives from the flaming tunnel. At least five of the trucks burst into flames, and the fire spread to the others.
“It looked like a bomb went off,” said Los Angeles County firefighter Scott Clark, one of about 300 firefighters who battled the blaze through the night.
Officials hope to reopen the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 by Tuesday morning, but they have been hampered by small lingering fires and concern about whether the tunnel is safe to drive through.
The bodies of two crash victims were found in the tunnel Saturday, said California Highway Patrol Officer David Porter. He couldn’t immediately say whether one of them was a trucker listed as missing.
Firefighters could find more bodies as they explored the charred tunnel Saturday, said Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Ron Haralson.
The pileup in the southbound truck tunnel of I-5 began about 11 p.m. Friday when two rigs collided on the rain-slickened highway about 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. As crashes continued throughout the tunnel, which is about an eighth of a mile long, five tractor-trailers burst into flames, and the fire quickly spread.
As the fire spread Friday night, flames shot out of both ends of the tunnel, rising as high as 100 feet into the air, firefighters at the scene said. The intense heat caused concrete to crack and melt, sending chucks falling onto a road below throughout the night. Firefighters worried that the damage could cause parts of the tunnel to collapse, particularly if cars were allowed back onto a road that runs above it.
By Saturday afternoon, all of the flames appeared to have been extinguished.
Although the tunnel is designed to carry truck traffic through a mountain pass area, Fire Inspector Jason Hurd said passenger cars may also use it, raising concerns that some might have been trapped inside.
“We’re going to have to do a very methodical search,” Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said. “There could be, unfortunately, more people that were not able to escape.”
