BREAKING: Bridge collapses on I-85 during massive fire (Atlanta)

[don-o]

BREAKING: Bridge collapses on I-85 during massive fire

http://www.ajc.com/news/traffic/breaking-bridge-collapses-during-massive-fire/FRzANVZ9vgyWW2WZfyN6jI/

Fire officials extinguished a massive fire on I-85 on Thursday night after it burned for more than an hour and led to the collapse of a bridge on the interstate, fire officials said.

[don-o]

Seems strange not to be hearing this on the national media.

[driftdiver]

Didnt Obama spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure?

[Cripplecreek]

Seems strange not to be hearing this on the national media.

Its not coastal.

I remember a similar situation a few years back in CA. A tractor trailer hit a highway bridge and the bridge collapsed in the ensuing fire.

[DB]

I wonder if there were a bunch of tires piled up under the bridge. Odd that they don't know what was burning. It was burning really hot whatever it was.

[don-o]

Gov saying pvc pipe caught fire under the overpass. i wonder if any wreckage survived the fire.

[DB]

Gov saying pvc pipe caught fire under the overpass. i wonder if any wreckage survived the fire.

Must of been an awful lot of PVC pipe!

[Right_in_Virginia]

[don-o]

Must of been an awful lot of PVC pipe!

My thought exactly. They had to bring foam trucks from the airport to put it out.

[don-o]

WSB reporter saying pvc pipe was stored under overpass. Also claiming that FBI saying "no criminal" act. (Wonder how they could know that?)

edit: Now saying FBI only says they have not been called in.

[don-o]

https://twitter.com/wsbtv/status/847589791390728192/photo/1

Supposed to be a pic of fire breaking out

[DB]

WSB reporter saying pvc pipe was stored under overpass. Also claiming that FBI saying "no criminal" act. (Wonder how they could know that?)

edit: Now saying FBI only says they have not been called in.

If they know the cause and it wasn't nefarious in origins then they don't need law enforcement to investigate.

[don-o]

looks like spools of some kind of cable, Just kinda lit itself????

[don-o]

If they know the cause and it wasn't nefarious in origins then they don't need law enforcement to investigate.

The reporter in the field said what I posted in my edit. The idiot at the anchor desk ignored that and made up his own news "no criminal act."

Feed is sporadic.

[r9etb]

Didnt Obama spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure?

I think starting a large petroleum fire under a bridge is probably not the kind of infrastructure spending he had in mind.

[Elderberry]

Does a reporter know one plastic pipe from another? I'm guessing its not PVC, but polyethylene.

[rangerrebew]

Interstate 85 collapses in massive fire in Atlanta
USA Today Network WXIA-TV, Atlanta Published 7:39 p.m. ET March 30, 2017 | Updated 17 minutes ago
 

ATLANTA — A massive fire caused a portion of heavily traveled Interstate 85 to collapse in northeast Atlanta Thursday evening.

Firefighters moved out from underneath the span just in the nick of time to avoid injury, a Atlanta Fire Department spokesman told WSB-TV.

The fire, which started around 6:30 p.m. ET, broke out near the Buford-Spring Connector. Around 7 p.m. the northbound lanes collapsed.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/03/30/interstate-85-massive-fire-atlanta/99849834/

[don-o]

Deal said the cause of the fire is unknown but “the speculation I’ve heard is that there are some PVC products that caught fire.”

Spontaneous combustion?

I have been looking in vain for any mention on ignition source.

[don-o]

Does a reporter know one plastic pipe from another? I'm guessing its not PVC, but polyethylene.

What no one seems to know is the ignition source. Whatever its composition, a lit cigarette is not going to ignite it.

[Cripplecreek]

What no one seems to know is the ignition source. Whatever its composition, a lit cigarette is not going to ignite it.

Probably arson unless there was some sort of chemical there leaking that might react with it.

[don-o]

I-85 collapse in Atlanta: What caused it?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/31/us/atlanta-interstate-85-fire-collapse-cause/

Started in a construction-supplies storage area
The flames ignited in an area where the state stores construction materials and supplies near the overpass, state Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry said.

PVC pipes are generally "stable," McMurry said Friday. A trade group, the Plastic Pipe and Fittings Association, says PVC pipes are combustible, but the material generally doesn't keep burning when a flame source is removed.
"We're as eager to learn the cause of this fire as anyone," McMurry said.

snips

[don-o]

Oddest reporting on this. Every fire story I have ever seen always includes fire origin.

[dfwgator]

Stupidity.

[Polly Ticks]

It sounds like they don't know yet, but it does make one wonder.

Are you in the Atlanta area?  I wonder how bad traffic was during this morning's rush hour.

[don-o]

It sounds like they don't know yet, but it does make one wonder.

Are you in the Atlanta area?  I wonder how bad traffic was during this morning's rush hour.

Lived there almost 30 years ago. Married a wife, left and never looked back.

I listened to the live streams last night and the lack of speculation/information on cause was very odd. One anchor misquoted his own reporter in the field, That reporter said that fbi said they had not been called in. The anchor mangles that into "no indication of a criminal act"

That pipe did not set itself on fire.