[symple_googlemap title=”” location=” 2600 block of East Eighth Street, Los Angeles, CA” height=”300″ zoom=”13″]
One of two fuel tanks being hauled by a truck overturned and caught fire near a Golden State (5) Freeway on-ramp in Boyle Heights Friday, damaging three nearby homes and a vehicle but causing no injuries, authorities said.
The crash and fire were reported at 3:30 p.m. at the southbound freeway on-ramp in the 2600 block of East Eighth Street, said Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Two homes sustained minor fire damage to their exteriors and a third was damaged more significantly when a “river of burning fuel” flowed down the gutter and ignited it, Humphrey said. An undetermined number of residents will be displaced from that home, he said.
The fire was controlled in about 20 minutes, but it took 80 minutes to fully extinguish all vehicle-, vegetation- and structure fires, according to Humphrey, who said 157 firefighters were sent to the scene.
Firefighters sprayed foam on the farthest back of two tanker trailers that were being hauled by a big rig. The tank contained as many as 4,500 gallons of fuel, a sizable portion of which spilled and was contained, LAFD Deputy Chief Joe Castro told reporters at the scene.
He estimated the cleanup would take two to four hours.
The intersection of Soto and Eighth streets and the freeway on-ramp were closed.
— City News Service