A multivehicle crash in a highway tunnel in southwestern Wyoming on Friday killed at least two people, injured several others and caused a fire that raged for hours as officials rushed to evacuate the passage, the authorities said.
The crash occurred at 11:37 a.m. under a snow-dusted hill in Green River, Wyo., according to the State Transportation Department. By 5 p.m., the tunnel, which leads traffic west on Interstate 80, had been evacuated and the scene had “been contained,” the department said in a statement.
It was not clear what had caused the crash or how many vehicles were involved, but one of them — a semi truck transporting transformers — had leaked oil, feeding the fire, said State Senator John Kolb, who represents the area.
Mr. Kolb said Friday evening that more than 10 people were receiving treatment for injuries, and that three area fire departments were still working to extinguish the blaze.
It was unclear when the tunnel might reopen.
“They’ve got really all hands on deck trying to control the situation,” Mr. Kolb said in an interview, adding that there was a “high likelihood of damage” to the tunnel.
The Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs, Wyo., issued a statement on Friday afternoon urging people to “refrain from visiting the hospital” unless they were experiencing emergencies, citing the “mass casualty incident” at the tunnel. But the hospital said Friday evening that it had resumed regular operations.
The State Transportation Department also urged motorists to avoid the crash site, which is near mile marker 90 on Interstate 80. The highway’s eastbound tunnel lanes were being used by emergency responders, the patrol said.
Interstate 80, a common trucking route, runs from the George Washington Bridge in New Jersey to San Francisco.
Alyssa Vasey of Kemmerer, Wyo., was traveling west on Interstate 80 late Friday morning when traffic came to a standstill. At first the cause of the slowdown was not clear, she said, but then smoke started to unfurl out of the tunnel.
“At first it was just a little smoke,” Ms. Vasey, 30, said by phone. “And then it got darker and was going up toward the sky. And then it just started pluming out. There was a ton of it.”
As sheriffs rushed to the scene and vehicles on the crowded highway tried to pull out of their way, tremors rippled through ground under the highway.
“It took like 30 or 45 minutes for the explosions to stop,” she said. “Every few minutes, there would be another.”
It was not clear what had caused the explosions. Video from the scene showed a thick, dark column of smoke rising from the entrance to the tunnel as trucks idled on the freeway.
The two-lane tunnel runs about 1,200 feet and is about 15 miles east of Rock Springs.
Ms. Vasey described it as cramped. “It kind of makes you nervous,” she said. “When a semi’s next to you, there’s no room.”
Mr. Kolb, the state legislator, said the tunnel was “not something you get out of easily” in an emergency. Still, he said, the pileup was the region’s first mass injury event in memory.
Structural engineers were headed to the scene to evaluate the condition of the tunnel on Friday evening, said Stephanie Harsha, a spokeswoman for the State Transportation Department.
The post Fiery Pileup in Wyoming Highway Tunnel Kills at Least 2 appeared first on New York Times.
