Tuesday's Closure Of Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Made For Nightmarish Commutes In North Bay

NORTH BAY, CA – A truck fire on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and a fire near a highway in Petaluma caused nightmare morning and evening commutes in the North Bay on Tuesday.

The eastbound span of the bridge between Marin and Contra Costa counties was closed between 8 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. after a 2013 Peterbilt truck hauling approximately 80,000 pounds of soil struck a concrete cement k-rail near the mid-span of the bridge, California Highway Patrol Officer Andrew Barclay said.

The truck cab caught fire and melted to the ground but only the front of the trailer was burned, Barclay said. The driver, a 62-year-old Torrance man, was not injured.

The crash ruptured one of the truck's fuel tanks, causing a 75-gallon fuel spill that flowed down the slope of the bridge and covered more than a half-mile of the roadway. None of the fuel leaked into the Bay
below the bridge, Barclay said.

The CHP closed both eastbound lanes of Interstate Highway 580 at U.S. Highway 101 and on-ramps onto the highway from San Rafael, causing backups on San Rafael streets, according to Barclay.

Richmond firefighters responded by driving west on eastbound Highway 580. Once the fire was out and Caltrans inspected both decks of the bridge and found it safe, motorists who were stuck on the eastbound span were escorted past the crash scene and off the bridge, Barclay said.

The soil was described as contaminated only because it had been removed from the ground of a construction site.

"It was not a bio-hazard," Barclay said, noting that the diesel spill was the only hazardous material threat.

Barclay described the incident as a "perfect storm" because it was hard to access the fire during the morning commute. Motorcycle officers were the first to get to the scene.

Evening commuters heading north on Highway 101 in Sonoma County then encountered a traffic nightmare because of a three-alarm fire burning multiple residential structures just east of the right shoulder of the
highway.

The vegetation fire was reported around 3:15 p.m. along the highway north of the Lakeville Highway on-ramp, according to Petaluma Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Schach.

The fire spread to residences in the 300 block of Stuart Drive that fronts the highway, damaging 14 and destroying four of them.

It took nearly an hour to control the fire that drew a response from 16 outside agencies. A Cal Fire helicopter dropped water as firefighters controlled the fire on the ground, Schach said.

Overhaul and extinguishment inside several homes took another three hours. Two residents suffered minor injuries and a cat perished in one of the destroyed homes, Schach said.

CHP Officer Jon Sloat said northbound traffic was diverted off the highway until 4:30 p.m. and both lanes of the highway reopened at 5 p.m.

The cause and exact origin of the fire is under investigation, and damage is estimated at $1.5 million, Schach said.

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--Bay City News/Photos of Richmond Bridge accident via CHP