Posted on 04/30/2007 5:34:53 AM PDT by bikerMD
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - A gasoline tanker crashed and burst into flames near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Sunday, creating such intense heat that a stretch of highway melted and collapsed. Officials predicted a traffic nightmare for Bay Area commuters for weeks or months to come.
Flames shot 200 feet in the air, but the truck's driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported in the 3:45 a.m. crash, which officials said could have been deadly had it occurred at a busier time.
"I've never seen anything like it," Officer Trent Cross of the California Highway Patrol said of the crumpled interchange. "I'm looking at this thinking, 'Wow, no one died' - that's amazing. It's just very fortunate."
Authorities said the damage could take months to repair, and that it would cause the worst disruption for Bay Area commuters since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged a section of the Bay Bridge itself.
...Witnesses reported flames rising up to 200 feet into the air. Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 above to buckle and bolts holding the structure together to MELT, leading to the collapse, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said.
Somebody call Rosie O'Donnell!! This is obviously a controlled demoliton conspiracy to destroy a critical bridge in Nancy Pelosi's area of California. It's just another example of Karl Rove/George Bush trying to fool the American people into thinking that intense heat can melt steel.
one wonders if this is one of those highways rebuilt a few years ago after an earthquake using massive incentives for quick completion, and if so, whether that had anything to do with this.
This incident was God’s way of tweaking Rosie’s nose.
LOL! I was thinking the exact same thing when I was reading it...
“We’re sorry, but the party you have called, Rosie O’Doughnut, is in Krispy Kreme and cannot answer her phone.”
Of course, we all knew Rosie is a stupid big-mouth, who never graduated from engineering school.
Unfortunately, there are jihadis who have, and they see another golden opportunity in this event. Light up a few oil tanker trucks at crucial bridges in our interstate system and trucking could be halted to our major cities. It would be prudent to plan ahead for such events in the future...but we probably won’t.
This bridge could be replaced within a month if they get their act together.
They’ll tell you that fire can’t collapse a steel structure...
Actually the truck was carrying documents from Nancy Pelosi’s many illegal offshore bank accounts and they had to be destroyed. Instead of shredding them, she has a gasoline truck crash on a bridge making it collapse!
Its so obvious.
This happened in Birmingham, Al. a few years back.
Burning gasoline or fuel oil generates enough heat to melt the structural steel in an overpass, Rosies’ blessing or not.
you are, of course correct. But if this bridge is part of that, wait till they start blamign the incentives.
about 2-3 years ago we lost I-95 because a flaming oil truck melted an overpass. Of course, they took forever to fix it. I was fortunate not to have been affected.
Imagine a gasoline tanker hijacked by a terrorist and the damage that could result from crashing it into a school, hospital or shopping mall or detonating it in a tunnel.
Contractors were offered huge bonuses for 'days early' to get it rebuilt. Some Texas bridge contractor got it going, and brought in, via rail, tons and tons of some new concrete that would set up and cure quicker.
He made several extra million dollars, which I didn't begrudge one bit. After six months, I was downright sick of a four hour each way commute.
You should add to the title: ATTN ROSIE: Fire Melted Steel!
“Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 above to buckle and bolts holding the structure together to MELT, leading to the collapse, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said.”
And the kooks like to say that there is no way the Twin towers superstructure could have been destroyed by the heat of jet fuel, with out “help” of well placed bombs!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.