Posted on 07/15/2009 6:19:54 PM PDT by just me
A bridge over the I-75 in Hazel Park, Michigan has collapsed following a massive explosion after a gas tanker overturned.
Where is Hazel park, my nephew is a truck driver?
Prayers going up, here. Hope everyone is OK.
HAZEL PARK, Mich. (WXYZ) - A tanker truck has exploded in the vacinity of northbound I-75/I-696/Nine Mile Road in Hazel Park, causing a massive fire and explosion. Eyewitnesses say the tanker tried to make it under the Nine Mile overpass but the top of the tanker hit the bridge, causing the explosion. It is not known what the tanker was carrying.
I-75 has been shut down in both directions from the center of the fire. Response teams from Hazel Park, Madison Heights and Ferndale are at the scene.
Multiple sources have told Action News that the overpass has collapsed at the center of the fire. The explosion, according to witnesses, occurred around 8:15 p.m.
Action News crews are on the way to the scene.
Detroit
Next town north of Detroit
Thank you
Just sayin'.
Michigan state police spokesman tells BNO News two tankers were involved in the bridge explosion.
Thanks He drives between CHicago and Detroit.....
Prayers for all.
Wow, prayers.
They think a fire truck fell with the bridge.
My mother is keeping track of it too. Says the driver says he was hauling gasoline so at least that driver is OK.
Video up now.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story/BREAKING-Massive-Fire-in-Hazel-Park/DfqWrkOca0avFwo2l2ybSA.cspx
The article says witnesses claim the tanker was too tall for the clearance. Or so they say.
I’m thinking how horrific it would be to see the vehicle of a loved one or friend. God bless and be with everyone involved.
1-2 tankers exploded.
One had 9000 gals of gasoline.
The truck exploded after hitting the overpass.
Many vehicles on fire, or have exploded.
The flames from the gasoline were so intense, it collapsed the overpass.
Just sayin'.
I grew up in the 1970s in St. Clair Shores, a suburb of Detroit. All of Detroit's freeways are below street level, with either sloped earth side walls, or massive side walls made of concrete. All of the cross streets are bridges over the freeways.
Seems like a tanker truck a month would overturn, burn, and cause damage to the concrete retaining walls. This is nothing new for Detroit.
Just sayin'.
Wait a minute. Obama is in office now. AND he’s been throwing billions and billions of dollars around, promising to repair our “crumbling infrastructure.”
If the I-35 bridge collapse was somehow “Bush’s fault” (as the leftnuts claim), then this collapse if definitely Obama’s fault.
Damn, that looks pretty bad.
Lordy. We had a similar thing happen in Birmingham, AL a few years ago.
looks like a set from Terminator...
Wait a minute. The 9/11 "Truther" nuts say that fuel can't burn hot enough to collapse concrete and steel. So that can't be what happened here.
That's impossible. The "truthers" told us so.
GMTA (and still praying for any victims).
The police have also indicated that they believe the tanker truck took the wrong exit, or was forced (stuck in wrong lane) to take the exit.
IMHO, so far, it does not appear to be a planned action. It appears to be a deadly mistake.
They can't get close enough, due to the intense heat, to even tell how many cars , trucks, fire trucks, people are involved in this.
If no one has died in this, it will be a miracle.
Apparently gas is also flowing into the sewers and it is also on fire...
OH NO!!!
On the other hand, Islam is not a race.
Situation looks pretty bad - I hope that everyone survived.
omg...there’s no way anyone could have made it out of that truck and car!
Thanks for the updates. (All three of ‘em. LOL)
I can’t understand how a tanker would hit an overpass. Most gasoline tankers are under 12 feet tall and all overpasses, unless marked otherwise, are supposed to be 13 ft 6 inches.
Being in the United States Radical Islamic headquarters area, I would bet that some terrorist put bombs into the hose tubes on the truck and exploded by cell phone. (all sarcasm of course, but you never know).
http://www.freep.com/article/20090715/NEWS03/90715083/Tanker-fire-closes-I-75
....Radio station WWJ-AM says an overpass at the crash site collapsed after the tanker and a tractor-trailer collided about 8:30 p.m.
The station says several other vehicles were involved in the crash 10 miles north of downtown Detroit.
Witnesses say flames and black, billowing plumes of smoke are reaching 150 to 200 feet into the air and gas that has reached the sewers along the freeway also has caught fire.
Police are ordering onlookers gathered along the top of the embankments along the crash site to move back to avoid exposure to toxic smoke.
Dorothy Mirasolo lives in Hazel Park, less than a half mile northwest of the explosion.
“I heard an explosion. I was like ‘What the heck is that?’ At first I thought it was a car hitting a car. Then it sounded like shotguns going off and it was very close.”
She said explosions kept happening over the course of five minutes.
She along with hundreds of others went on the pedestrian bridge, about 1/4 mile north of the accident site to get a birds-eye view of the happenings.
It was there that she noticed the bridge had collapsed.
“To me, when I first got there, it looked like it was OK. All of a sudden I noticed it was down. There was so much smoke you couldn’t see it very well.”
Even if the truck driver turns out to be named Habib, I am pretty much sure this was a case of a driver forced off onto an unfamiliar exit, and ....scrapeeeeeeee...boom.
And as everyone else has been indicating, prayers for those involved, and their families.
Obama’s fault.
Probably headed for Minneapolis...
Kerry should be blaming Governor Palin pretty soon.
I BEG YOUR PARDON!
That’s ridiculous. Fire can’t melt steel.
Michigan’s roads are old — Woodward Ave. is “1,” they’re so old.
A lot of the bridges here are too low. I live in Jackson county where i-94 runs through and trucks hit Elm or Cooper a lot.
When my husband and I first married we lived in Ferndale on 11 Mile just west of I-75. If the accident is as terrible as it sounds it’s going to tie up traffic around Detroit so badly it should get emerency status to repair.
Lord have mercy. I wish my ISP was working better so I could stream the video.
Islam is an intolerant 'religion' that worships a black rock, has a pedophile for a prophet, and who's many extremist members commit numerous acts of terrorism.
Just sayin'.
It sounds like they were below the interstate and hit the interstate bridge above to me. Most gasoline tankers in the U.S. drive local. They would know if the interstate clearance was too low well in advance. Most interstate bridges are at 13'9" or above and yes a tanker is lower than a freight trailer. This is just my guess but it sounds like they were trying to take a short cut or were headed to a delivery point. It sounds like they were on a secondary road neither one knew. Not clearing an interstate bridge on the interstate with a tanker doesn't make sense period.
Now that, gentlemen, is a classy comeback.
There were two Semi’s the tanker and a gravel truck behind it. There was a woman in a pickup who did not want to pass on the left. People were getting by in the right lane. Then something happened.
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