A tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of fuel was involved in a major accident on I-26 in Lexington, SC, yesterday morning.
After the tanker crashed, some of the fuel it was hauling leaked into a drainage pipe and caught fire. The flames reached 50 feet high and trapped several other vehicles.
Lexington county: 2 west bound lanes are expected to reopen momentarily pic.twitter.com/HLh8p83Peg
— Trooper David SCHP (@SCHP_Troop1) May 27, 2015
According to WTLX, 10 other vehicles were trapped in the blaze, which resulted in the eastbound lanes being shut down for several hours.
Lance Corporal David Jones, from the SC Highway Patrol, said there was a fireworks store right next to the blaze and “if that had ignited, it would have been a catastrophe. We owe a lot of credit to the firefighters who came out here and risked their lives to battle this blaze. They make our job safer.
The victims of the accident were hospitalized and the lanes reopened 10 hours later. Fortunately, there were no fatalities. Investigations into the cause of the crash are underway.