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Potential Explosion Hazard on the 710 Freeway
By Steve Yamamoto | November 18, 2010
Just after 11:00 am today, the Long Beach Fire Department (LBFD) was called for reports of a tractor-trailer with a fuel tank fire that was actively leaking fuel on the Eastbound Gerald Desmond to the Northbound 710 freeway interchange. Upon Engine 6’s arrival they found a container truck that was pulled over with one of it’s saddle tanks rapidly leaking Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) out of it but luckily there was no fire. Firefighters wasted no time and charged a hose to push the highly flammable LNG vapors away from the truck and any ignition sources. The other crewmembers also acted quickly to shutdown the freeway that was heavily congested. Fortunately the driver got out safely and was uninjured. When Firefighters were attempting to stop the leak they noticed an unknown chemical that was clearly visible in red around the leaking area. Because of this the LBFD Hazardous Material Team (HazMat 24) was immediately called out to identify the questionable substance. Once the chemical was identified as safe to work around the Firefighters quickly stopped the leak and reopened the freeway. The cause of the fuel tank leak is currently under investigation.
Thanks to the efforts of the LBFD, the highly flammable vapors that could have caused an enormous explosion were put at bay and the freeway was reopened with no injuries. There were a total of 16 Fire Department Apparatus and 43 personnel operating on this incident that took place in the 1st Council District.
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