Traffic around Dodger stadium remains jammed after truck fire

By late Saturday evening, all northbound lanes of the 5 Freeway at the interchange of the 2 Freeway remained closed more than seven hours after a tanker truck carrying 7,500 gallons of gasoline overturned, caught fire and snarled traffic for hours, officials said.

As of 6:45 p.m., the southbound lanes of the 2 Freeway at the same interchange also remain closed and traffic was being diverted, said Officer Jennifer Cassidy of the California Highway Patrol. It was not clear when the freeway lanes would be reopened.

Traffic was jammed for miles along the southbound lanes near Dodger Stadium, where a baseball game that drew tens of thousands got underway at 4:15 p.m.

The tanker truck overturned on the freeway about 10:30 a.m. at a transition road tunnel at the interchange of the 2 and 5 freeways, officials said. A sizable amount of the “burning river of fuel� made its way into storm drains and the Los Angeles River, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

The Fire Department is working with local, regional, state and federal environmental authorities to minimize the effect on the river, he said.

No one was hurt, fire officials said.

The river remained ablaze four hours after the accident and the initial fire.

“It’s still burning,� said Robert Nashak, a media executive who could see the tanker fire’s smoke from his Silver Lake home and walked down to the edge of the river to see the damage for himself.

“It was like a flame-thrower was aimed at it. It ignited the vegetation on an island in the middle of the river.�

Traffic was snarled throughout Silver Lake as well as across the river in Atwater Village because of street and freeway ramp closures.

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