A trailer truck carrying fuel overturned near the entrance to Qualcomm Stadium Wednesday. The resulting fire sent plumes of thick black smoke hundreds of feet into the air and snarled traffic on nearby roads. No one was injured. KPBS Reporter Erik Anderson has details.
The thick dark smoke rolled off the overturned trailer as flames reached up 30 to 40 feet. The truck pulling two trailers was heading for the mission valley tank farm on the northeast corner of the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot. San Diego fire Chief Jeff Bowman says the driver failed to negotiate the turn.
Bowman: "This particular vehicle as you may know was making a turn on a corner. The front tank was empty, the rear was full it got out of balance, and he lost it."
James Bartells was in his back yard in the Serra Mesa neighborhood above Qualcomm Stadium moments before the accident happened.
Bartells: "We were up on top because I live right up there on the hill. And we were already in the backyard just doing our thing. And then I heard URRRRR, and I look and I'm like that's going to be a car crash. I look up over the hill because we can see down here. And then I see the tank just hit the wall. POW and it flipped over."
Bartells says he saw the driver of the truck try to put out the flame with a fire extinguisher that the man pulled from the cab of the vehicle. He says the driver then ran from the burning trailer. Bartells says a short time later the trailer exploded into flame.
Bartells: "It didn't blow up right away. I would say around ninish, nine oh five there was like two explosions. It was like BOOM, BOOM, but it didn't blow up right away."
The flames from the trailer ignited a stand of trees next to the road and fuel spilling from the rig ran into the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot and toward the San Diego river.
Hazmat crews worked to keep the fuel spill contained as the fire blazed for much of the morning. Chief Jeff Bowman says fire crews decided it was best to let the four thousand gallons of fuel burn off.
Bowman: "The safest course of action is to cool the tankers and secondly is to make sure that whatever material burns outside of the original vehicle of origin, that its contained in some fashion."
Fire Captain Kevin Elster was the on the first fire truck to arrive on the scene.
Elster: "We were up in Normal Heights so when we left the station at Felton and Adams we could see the column of smoke from Felton looking towards the valley."
It took nine minutes for the first fire truck to reach the scene. That's not an acceptable response time for San Diego's fire chief Jeff Bowman. He's lobbied for a long time to build a fire station in Mission Valley. City officials recently approved plans for that and new San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders says a temporary solution is only a short while away.
Sanders: "There is a fire station, a temporary, being built in the back of the stadium. And that won't be up until next week. I think its important to note that that will be up there and we are paying attention to what the fire chief has told us about the needs for a fire station in Mission Valley. "
The blaze forced officials to close several streets near the accident, including heavily traveled Friars Road. Fire officials say crews were lucky the accident happened at 9:00 am on a weekday morning. Fire chief Jeff Bowman says many more people would've been at risk if the accident happened during a Qualcomm Stadium event like a football game. He says an evacuation would've been difficult, but needed.
Erik Anderson KPBS News.
