‘Traffic apocalypse from hell’ as thousands stuck on I-15, I-40 nearly 30 hours after fire
Thousands of motorists remained stuck Saturday on two major Southern California highways including Interstate 15, the main route to Las Vegas, nearly 30 hours after a fire on a truck carrying large lithium-ion batteries continued to burn, officials said.
The truck overturned and the battery contained caught fire near mile marker 113 on Interstate 15 near Baker, Calif., before 8 a.m. Friday, creating a nightmare for motorists, with some calling it a “crisis situation” and a “traffic apocalypse from hell.”
Northbound I-15 traffic has essentially been stopped since the initial crash. Interstate 40 was also clogged up with miles-long backups as drivers sought to avoid I-15.
“Thousands upon thousands of commuters headed for Vegas are stuck,” California Highway Patrol Officer Shane Hernandez said shortly before 10 a.m. Saturday. He estimated the backup was probably 15 miles at some point as heavy Friday afternoon traffic en route to Las Vegas stacked up.
There were social media reports of many people sleeping in their vehicles overnight with temperatures around 100 degrees.
Road opening delayed
Officials were hopeful one lane northbound might be opened about noon Saturday, but a need for more hazardous materials specialists delayed a reopening until at least mid-afternoon, Hernandez said.
“The container had six large industrial-grade lithium-ion metal batteries and the manufacturer said adding some more hazmat specialists would be good idea,” Hernandez said at 1 p.m. “They are, I think, from CHP, and it will take them a few hours to get here from down the hill on the other side of the Cajon Pass.”
A check of the air near the fire during the noon hour did not show much improvement, which was also contributing to the delay in reopening the road, Hernandez said.
“There has been between 40 to 60 emergency calls open (to dispatch) much of the time for everything from medical emergencies to crashes to disabled vehicles,” Hernandez said.
Southbound traffic to Southern California has not been impacted since lanes were reopened about 3 p.m. Friday. All northbound and southbound traffic was stopped from around 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday.
Hernandez noted that since I-15 is two lanes pretty much from Barstow to Baker, the traffic jam built up quickly on Friday afternoon and evening.
“Obviously it is a busy stretch,” he said. “Some people went through the Mojave National (Preserve) to get down to Interstate 40 and it too was jammed.”
‘Crisis situation’
John Tournour, the well-known sports talk radio host on the Las Vegas Sports Network who goes by “J.T. the Brick,” has been on the road since 1:30 p.m. Friday from Southern California.
“It’s been a traffic apocalypse from hell,” said Tournour, 58.
Due to the Interstate 15 closure, Tournour had to stay the night in Barstow. On Saturday, he encountered a new issue. “Everybody knows the I-15 is closed,” he said. But the only alternative, Interstate 40, is “just not moving.”
“People are running out of gas,” Tournour said. He said that drivers on the road, some of who are waiting outside of their cars, are frustrated by a lack of information coming out of Las Vegas.
“No one understands what’s going on out here,” Tournour said. “It’s a crisis situation.” He worried for the elderly and kids on the road who are running out of gas and water.
“It’s getting hotter by the minute,” he said. Tournour said he regrets ever leaving Southern California.
Kacee Lavigne, a 38-year-old Las Vegas resident, considered her nearly six-hour drive from Las Vegas to Riverside on Friday to have been a luckier outcome than most.
The truck was still burning when she drove past. “All the fire and ambulances were hanging back pretty far,” Lavigne said. “They really couldn’t go near it.”
While Lavigne was travelling south, she said the northbound lanes were “deadstopped.” Even on the southbound side, vehicles began off-roading, she said.
Some of the cars that went off the road in an attempt to pass traffic got stuck in the desert, Lavigne said.
Lavigne saw several drivers pull over to use the restroom, one woman pull over to breastfeed her baby and several people pull over “to go smoke a blunt.”
Currently 40E pic.twitter.com/wCZ3ffIXYr
— JT The Brick (@JTTheBrick) July 27, 2024
Closed until it’s safe
The California Department of Transportation said that it is supporting the San Bernardino Fire Authority and California Highway Patrol in making sure that the northbound lanes of Interstate 15 remain closed, External Affairs Manager Emily Leinen said Saturday.
Leinen said that the department is turning everyone around, diverting drivers at the Harvard Road exit.
The northbound lanes will remain closed until the fire authority says it is safe to lift the closure, Leinen said.
The Clark County Fire Department is monitoring the situation, according to Assistant Fire Chief Carlito Rayos. The department is coordinating with the San Bernardino County Office of Emergency Services and have offered resources to assist with getting the truck upright, Rayos said.
Accidents on Interstate 40
On Friday night, motorists took to the shoulder of Interstate 40 in an attempt to get ahead of the heavy traffic.
Twenty to 30-mile stretches of Interstate 40 were taking two to three hours to traverse.
At points along the route semi trucks pulled over on the shoulder. Cars driving on the shoulder collided with stopped trucks, with accidents occurring along the route.
University Medical Center Public Relations Director Scott Kerbs said that the trauma team at the hospital was not aware of any patients being admitted in relation to the closure.
San Bernardino Cty. FD post
Southbound travel status
Drivers recounted their experience in the traffic mess.
On Friday afternoon at 1:15 p.m., with limited information available about the fire, Rosa Hedges, a 41-year-old Las Vegas resident, decided to stick to the freeway as she drove from Las Vegas to California as she thought it would be safer than an alternative route.
Hedges said that even though the San Bernardino County Fire Department said they reopened southbound lanes on the I-15 at 3 p.m. on Friday, she still got stuck at Baker, finally passing the accident at 5 p.m.
“I felt like they let some people through, then stopped and reopened,” Hedges said in an email. She said she didn’t start moving until 4:15 p.m. Friday.
“Highway patrol was driving up and going down in the side shoulder southbound making sure everyone got help if needed,” Hedges said. “Seeing them every 15 minutes made me feel safe.”
Hedges reported seeing several cars stuck out in the dirt on the side of the road and Teslas that had run out of battery power. She said seeing the empty northbound lanes was eerie.
Trevor Pasley, a 42-year-old Las Vegas resident, also got stuck in traffic heading towards San Diego. “Luckily it just added a couple of hours unlike the folks heading north towards Vegas,” he said in an email.
A representative of the Nevada Resort Association, which represents more than 60 Southern Nevada resorts, said it’s too soon to tell how much the I-15 closure is affecting visitation this weekend.
“I know the resorts are working with customers that are impacted by the situation,” said Dawn Christensen, vice president of communications and corporate responsibility for the association. “It’s another example of why more investment is needed on I-15.”
Molly Castano, vice president of public relations and communication for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said it will take time to determine the financial impact of the highway closure on the city.
“It takes us some time to pull the numbers together and we’ll know what that is,” she said. “Vegas is doing great and will continue to do great, but I think our primary concern right now is the health and safety of the folks on the road. We want to make sure that they get where they’re going and get there as safely and quickly as they can.”
The five-day summer edition of Las Vegas Market that brings more than 4,300 furniture, gift and home decor manufacturers and exhibitors to downtown Las Vegas’ Expo at World Market Center begins Sunday. The event usually attracts more than 50,000 people.
“Some inbound drive-in traffic has been delayed due to the incident on I-15. We are working with our tradeshow exhibitors arriving via this route to accommodate later move-ins if they were impacted. Overall, reports of delays are fairly minimal since Las Vegas Market doesn’t open until Sunday,” said Greg Avitabile, an executive with ANDMORE, which owns and operates Las Vegas Market, in an email.
Mayor: Shame on California
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, an LVCVA board member who has been a frequent critic of the lack of infrastructure improvement to I-15, said that lack of action is now putting lives at risk.
“While we look forward to a future that Brightline (the high-speed rail line being built between Southern California and Las Vegas) may provide for travelers from Barstow, California, to Stateline, Nevada, the work that should have begun years ago for the vehicular traffic on I-15 now is putting lives at risk as gridlock — with no shoulders — is being ignored,” Goodman said in a text message.
“Shame on Caltrans and California,” Goodman said.
‘It’s our lifeline’
The situation has also renewed calls from other local politicians to improve the main route between Las Vegas and Southern California.
“Whatever it takes, we need to enhance, improve and protect I-15,” said Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom. “It’s our lifeline.”
Segerblom said that the problem is working with California. He said he hopes to find a way to help the state pay for another lane or anything else they might need. “Without I-15, we’re dead,” he said.
Building at least a third lane is a good start, Segerblom said, but he hopes that people can travel back and forth from California safely without having to spend hours in their vehicle.
“Over half of our tourism comes from California on that road,” Segerblom said. “This just highlights the urgency that we don’t just sit around and stick our heads in the sand.”
Segerblom worried that people stuck on the side of the road on Saturday would be in a life-threatening situation, given the triple-digit heat.
County Commissioner James Gibson said that while he’s never been aware of a plan to build a new freeway, enabling more movement on I-15 is something the commission has been working on for a long time.
“It’s a real concern to have an accident like that and to have the traffic effectively cut out 30-plus percent of the people who would come to Las Vegas for the weekend,” Gibson said.
Gibson said that there wasn’t currently a timeline in place regarding possible improvements to Interstate 15.
Fire situation
As of about 10 a.m. Saturday the fire in a container of lithium-ion batteries was smouldering, Hernandez said.
San Bernardino firefighters, Hernandez said, tried to move the container farther away from the roadway, but the batteries were still burning.
“They tried to push it further away, but they couldn’t because of the weight (more than 75,000 pounds) and the volatility of the fire,” Hernandez said.
Lithium-ion fires are particularly hazardous due to the chemicals released during off-gassing and the potential for thermal runaway, fire officials said. Thermal runaway can cause the fire to spread rapidly and emit toxic gases, making it essential to handle the situation with extreme caution.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for further developments.
Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com. Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Review-Journal photographer L.E. Baskow, staff writer Richard Velotta, and business editor Erin Edgemon contributed to this report.
