PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Interstate 5 northbound is closed after a trailer carrying dozens of five-gallon propane tanks caught fire Tuesday morning.
Portland Fire and Rescue said the blaze broke out just before 5 a.m. near the North Killingsworth intersection. When crews arrived, they found the tractor already disconnected from the rig.
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The driver was reportedly gone and flames were pouring out of the trailer. Fire crews say it didn’t take long for the tanks to catch fire and begin exploding, forcing officials to shut down all lanes.
“Command officers thought, upon arrival, that they might be able to stop them quickly. In the period of about 15 seconds, with the increased number of tanks getting involved and beginning to pop like popcorn across the freeway, they quickly decided to create a safety shadow and have a different plan,” PF&R spokesperson Rick Graves said.
To extinguish the fire, officials said they used tanks to lug nearly 5,000 gallons of water across the freeway.
It remains unclear whether the driver was hurt, but no injuries were reported at the scene.
Oregon Department of Transportation crews are working to grind and repave the roads following the fire, which officials said looked like a scene from an action movie with propane tanks exploding through the air — even crossing interstate lanes.
“It rumbled my brain. It shook my eyes,” one witness Nicholas Jordan said. “It sounded really loud like Hiroshima, like we were getting bombed — boom boom boom boom boom.”
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ODOT said the northbound lanes of I-5 will likely remain closed for most of Tuesday as crews continue to clean up and assess the damage. However, early assessments found no heat or structural impacts to the bridge I’m standing on.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Portland police don’t believe it was intentionally set. Anyone with information about the driver’s whereabouts is asked to contact authorities.
Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.
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