MESQUITE — A diesel fuel tanker truck wrecked and caught fire early Monday, igniting an explosive inferno that shut down Interstate 30 in both directions for much of the morning rush hour.
"I looked over and I heard a big bang," said James Teuton, who works nearby. He said it was a hit-and-run accident involving another big truck hauling gravel.
"I saw the truck hit the truck and he kept on going," Teuton said. "It was a gravel truck and it wasn't right. You'll be able to see damage on his vehicle — but he should've stopped."
The fire posed a danger to motorists and nearby businesses. "The main concern was just the safety of the people around it," said Mesquite Fire Department Capt. Chad Rose. "We did that by shutting down all the highways and the service roads and keeping everybody away from it and letting it burn."
The fire was mostly out a little over an hour after the accident, but firefighters continued to let spilled fuel burn itself out 90 minutes later.
The tanker driver escaped and was hospitalized for treatment of burns. Only ashes remained of his vehicle hours later.
The accident, at 4:30 a.m., happened under the Big Town Boulevard overpass. Texas Department of Transportation engineers examined the span for structural defects and traffic was permitted to resume before 9 a.m.
The westbound lanes of I-30 were moving again by 8:30, but cleanup efforts kept the eastbound lanes closed until after 1:30 p.m.
Workers were able to restore traffic on the left and center lanes by mid-afternoon, but the eastbound frontage road and the right lane of the freeway remained closed pending further work.
Samuell Boulevard is an alternate route.
Investigators said they won't know the full story of what happened until they can interview the driver of the tanker truck.
A similar fiery crash in October 2008 forced the demoliton and reconstruction of an overpass on U.S. Highway 175 in South Dallas.
E-mail cvega@wfaa.com
