Thousands of motorists remained stuck Saturday on two major Southern California highways including Interstate 15, the main route to Las Vegas, more than 26 hours after a fire on a truck carrying lithium-ion batteries continued to burn, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The truck overturned and caught fire near mile marker 113 on Interstate 15 near Baker, Calif., before 8 a.m. Friday, creating a nightmare for motorists. Northbound I-15 traffic has essentially been stopped since the initial crash.
“Thousands upon thousands of commuters headed for Vegas are stuck,” California Highway Patrol Officer Shane Hernandez said shortly before 10 a.m. Saturday. He estimated the backup was probably 15 miles at some point as heavy Friday afternoon traffic en route to Las Vegas stacked up.
Officials were hopeful one lane northbound might be opened about noon Saturday.
Some motorists took alternate routes, including I-40 to the south. That freeway also had miles-long traffic backups.
“There has been between 40 to 60 emergency calls open (to dispatch) much of the time for everything from medical emergencies to crashes to disabled vehicles,” Hernandez said.
Southbound traffic to Southern California has not been impacted since lanes were reopened about 3 p.m. Friday. All northbound and southbound traffic was stopped from around 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday.
Hernandez noted that since I-15 is two lanes pretty much from Barstow to Baker, the traffic jam built up quickly on Friday afternoon and evening.
“Obviously it is a busy stretch,” he said. “Some people went through the Mojave National Forest to get down to Interstate 40 and it too was jammed.”
‘Crisis situation’
John Tournour, the well-known sports talk radio host on the Las Vegas Sports Network who goes by “J.T. the Brick,” has been on the road since 1:30 p.m. Friday from Southern California.
“It’s been a traffic apocalypse from hell,” said Tournour, 58.
Due to the Interstate 15 closure, Tournour had to stay the night in Barstow. On Saturday, he encountered a new issue. “Everybody knows the I-15 is closed,” he said. But the only alternative, Interstate 40, is “just not moving.”
“People are running out of gas,” Tournour said. He said that drivers on the road, some of who are waiting outside of their cars, are frustrated by a lack of information coming out of Las Vegas.
“No one understands what’s going on out here,” Tournour said. “It’s a crisis situation.” He worried for the elderly and kids on the road who are running out of gas and water.
“It’s getting hotter by the minute,” he said. Tournour said he regrets ever leaving Southern California.
Accidents on Interstate 40
On Friday night, motorists took to the shoulder of Interstate 40 in an attempt to get ahead of the heavy traffic.
Twenty to 30 mile stretches of Interstate 40 were taking two to three hours to traverse.
At points along the route semi trucks pulled over on the shoulder. Cars driving on the shoulder collided with stopped trucks, with accidents occurring along the route.
Very little emergency response was seen along the route, which has limited service options available for people seeking gas and other resources.
San Bernardino Cty. FD post
Southbound travel status
On Friday afternoon at 1:15 p.m., with limited information available about the fire, Rosa Hedges decided to stick to the freeway as she drove from Las Vegas to California as she thought it would be safer than an alternative route.
Hedges said that even though the San Bernardino Fire Department said they reopened southbound lanes on the I-15 at 3 p.m. on Friday, she still got stuck at Baker, finally passing the accident at 5 p.m.
“I felt like they let some people through, then stopped and reopened,” Hedges said in an email. She said she didn’t start moving until 4:15 p.m. Friday.
“Highway patrol was driving up and going down in the side shoulder southbound making sure everyone got help if needed,” Hedges said. “Seeing them every 15 minutes made me feel safe.”
Hedges reported seeing several cars stuck out in the dirt on the side of the road and Teslas that had run out of battery power. She said seeing the empty northbound lanes was eerie.
Trevor Pasley also got stuck in traffic heading towards San Diego. “Luckily it just added a couple of hours unlike the folks heading north towards Vegas,” he said in an email.
Fire situation
As of about 10 a.m. Saturday the fire in a container of lithium-ion batteries was smouldering, Hernandez said.
San Bernardino County Fire Department firefighters, Hernandez said, tried to move the container farther away from the roadway, but the batteries were still burning.
“They tried to push it further away, but they couldn’t because of the weight (more than 75,000 pounds) and the volatility of the fire,” Hernandez said.
Firefighters plan to reassess everything around 11 a.m. “and if the fume levels in the area around the fire are acceptable, they hope to open one lane northbound around noon,” Hernandez said.
“Multiple attempts were made to move the container from the freeway shoulder to open land using heavy equipment from the County Fire’s Special Operations Division, including an excavator and a dozer,” the county fire department posted on X late Saturday morning. “Ground improvements and grading were completed in preparation for relocating the container to a safe area for long-term mitigation and cleanup. However, the container’s weight, exceeding 75,000 pounds, has made these efforts unsuccessful so far.”
“One of the significant challenges in this remote area is the logistics of transporting equipment, personnel, and water to the scene,” the fire department stated Friday. “This area of the county is very distant from many of our stations, and the required equipment and personnel have extended ETA’s. The current traffic conditions have further increased these response times. San Bernardino County Fire is working closely with CalTrans, utilizing heavy equipment from both agencies to manage the situation.”
Dozers were grading a large berm next to the battery container “to facilitate its safe removal from the freeway into open land,” the post stated.
Thermal runaway possible
Lithium-ion fires are particularly hazardous due to the chemicals released during off-gassing and the potential for thermal runaway, fire officials said. Thermal runaway can cause the fire to spread rapidly and emit toxic gases, making it essential to handle the situation with extreme caution.
“Our teams are working diligently to mitigate the incident and hope that CHP will be able to open the NB I-15 as soon as it is safe to do so,” the late evening update stated.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for further developments.
