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Fiery 15-truck pile-up kills 2, closes
Calif. I-5 tunnel

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SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) — Amid the piles of
twisted, blackened metal sat one recognizable vehicle: a pale blue truck
cab, its right turn signal still blinking.

It was a reminder of how suddenly and furiously a
rainy but fairly routine night on a major Southern California freeway
turned into an inferno that sent motorists scrambling for their lives.

Several big-rig trucks had piled up in a crash that
sent flames shooting from both ends of the Interstate 5 tunnel, killing at
least two people and injuring 10.

By Saturday, the rain had stopped, but this winding
section of highway that carries travelers out of the high desert and
through a warren of canyons as it descends into Los Angeles' San Fernando
Valley seemed more like a war zone than a freeway.

"It looked like a bomb went off," said Los Angeles
County firefighter Scott Clark, who arrived along with about 300 other
firefighters soon after the 11 p.m. crash. He and most of the others
stayed well past dawn to battle the flames, which reached as high as 100
feet into the sky.

The pileup, triggered by the collision of two big
rigs, quickly grew as vehicles struck others. Five trucks burst into
flames, and the fire quickly spread to the other vehicles.

Twenty people escaped the burning tunnel, including
10 who suffered minor to moderate injuries, said Los Angeles County Fire
Inspector Jason Hurd. They were taken to hospitals and treated for neck
and back injuries and burns.

Hours later, the stubborn fire finally doused, the
bodies of two people were found inside the tunnel.

The flames and smoke kept firefighters from entering
the tunnel until mid-afternoon Saturday, when they began hauling out piles
of wreckage and looking for victims with the help of state transportation
workers.

"We're going to have to do a very methodical search,"
Deputy Chief John Tripp had said earlier. "There could be, unfortunately,
more people that were not able to escape."

Although the tunnel is designed to carry truck
traffic through a mountain pass area, Hurd said passenger cars also use
it, raising concerns that some might have been trapped inside.

The fire's intense heat also caused concrete to crack
and melt, sending chucks falling onto a road below.

At a news conference Saturday, authorities said they
hoped to complete their search for victims Sunday and reopen the
interstate on Tuesday.

Interstate 5 is a key route connecting Los Angeles to
Northern California, as well as a major commuter link connecting Los
Angeles to its northern suburbs. There are likely to be massive traffic
jams in the area if it is still closed when people return to work
Monday.

The section closed Friday was shut down twice before
by disasters — the Sylmar earthquake of 1971 and the Northridge quake of
1994 — when large overpasses over canyons collapsed. The worst of those
earthquakes, the Northridge, also damaged another nearby highway, snarling
traffic throughout the area.

Before firefighters began to haul debris away from
the tunnel Saturday, the charred skeletons of a few big rigs peeked out of
the tunnel's south end. At least one was carrying produce, and a
smoldering load of cabbages lay scattered across the pavement. A pile of
scorched truck debris could also be seen protruding from a tunnel
wall.

And, there was the blue truck cab.

Copyright 2007 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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To report corrections and
clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent
Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send
comments to [email-masked]. Include
name, phone number, city and state for
verification.

Enlarge

By Mike Meadows,
AP

Two of the
trucks involved in a pile-up on Interstate 5 burn in the
Newhall Pass between Santa Clarita and Los Angeles early
Saturday morning. Rain slick roads caused several of the
trucks to
overturn.

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