Korean Job Discussion Forums

[huffdaddy]

[ontheway]

THE MAZE MELTDOWN:
Eyewitness sees driver emerge from inferno
Patrick Hoge, Demian Bulwa, Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writers

Monday, April 30, 2007

Printable Version Email This Article del.icio.us
Digg
Technorati
Reddit Slashdot
Fark
Newsvine
Google Bookmarks
Georgia (default)
Verdana
Times New Roman
Arial
More...
Freeway Collapse
Traffic smooth in early commute (4/30)

The crash: Eyewitness to the inferno (4/30)

Driver walked 1.5 miles, hailed cab (4/30)

Caltrans acts fast, puts demolition crew to work (4/30)

East Bay commuters brace for problems (4/30)

Free rides as agencies work on plans (4/30)

Minimal hit expected for economy (4/30)

Tank fire destroys portion of MacArthur Maze (4/29)

NWZCHIK: Highway mayhem

Alternate Routes

CBS 5 video | Map

Check local traffic
Isaac Rodriguez rushed into the night from the Oakland sewage treatment plant where he works and found a blinding light -- a curtain of fire engulfing the elevated freeway ramps nearby.

A tanker truck carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline had overturned at 3:41 a.m. and burst into flames on the 50-foot-high ramp connecting westbound Interstate 80 to southbound Interstate 880. Within minutes, the ramp above it -- connecting eastbound I-80 to eastbound I-580 -- collapsed in the 3,000-degree cauldron.

"It was massive," said Rodriguez, a 53-year-old sanitation supervisor at the East Bay Municipal Utility District wastewater treatment plant. "It looked like a big slab of plastic because it was melted."

But it was no big slab of plastic. The overpass was a critical component of one of the Bay Area's busiest highway interchanges, the MacArthur Maze. The network of connector ramps merges the East Bay's three major highways: Interstates 80, 580 and 880.

The severed highway is a three-lane artery that served about 45,000 vehicles each day, and the damaged two-lane highway below it was used by about 35,000 vehicles, said Caltrans Director Will Kempton. Not since the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 has any other incident caused such major damage to a Bay Area freeway.

Rodriguez, who was called by his supervisors and ordered to evacuate the sewage plant, said that before the collapse, he watched the truck's driver stagger away from the burning mass -- a silhouette in the orange glow of flames.

"I saw movement, and there was a man up there. I started talking to the guy. 'Are you the truck driver?' 'Yes.' He said, 'I'm burned. I got out as soon as I could.' ''

The driver escaped just before the overhead ramp collapsed -- the fire had melted its steel undergirders. When the smoke cleared around daybreak Sunday, one ramp was draped like a comforter over the lower connector.

Only the tanker driver, who suffered burns to his face, neck and hands, was injured. No other vehicles were involved in the crash or fire.

The tanker was on its way from a refinery in Benicia to a gas station on Hegenberger Road in Oakland.

The Oakland Fire Department, the first of numerous public agencies to help tackle the blaze and cleanup, arrived with two engines at 3:55 a.m., according to Capt. Cedric Price.

"We didn't know it was a tanker truck that was involved. As soon as that was established, we immediately upgraded to a large-scale incident response team and added two more engines and two trucks," Price said.

Firefighters soon saw that the upper ramp was buckling, Price said, and by 4:02 -- seven minutes after they arrived -- it had collapsed. The firefighters changed their strategy for battling the blaze.

"With no structures or lives in jeopardy, and with 8,000 gallons of flammable fuel involved, you're basically better off letting it burn itself out," said Price.

Firefighters used only water to control the blaze, which took about two hours, Price said. Had there been lives at risk, firefighters would have used firefighting foam, but the chemicals in it then would have polluted the nearby bay.

"That this didn't happen on a weekday morning might have been the only beauty of it," Price said.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Trent Cross said the driver of the tanker, James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland (Yolo County), was traveling too fast in a 50 mph zone when his truck overturned.

At the accident scene, Mosqueda seemed disoriented.

"It looked at one time like he was walking toward the truck again," said Rodriguez, who urged the man to leave the truck. "I believe he was in shock."

Rodriguez said he regretted not thinking to send a vehicle up to get the injured man while he and a co-worker stood for some 40 minutes watching the freeway burn.

Mosqueda, an employee of Sabek Transportation in South San Francisco for 10 months, managed to get down and hail a taxi to Kaiser Oakland Medical Center. He was later transferred to the burn unit at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, where his father said he was "doing OK" Sunday afternoon after being treated for burns. The family expected Mosqueda to remain hospitalized for a couple of days.

Cross said Mosqueda has a valid driver's license and there is no indication he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs when he crashed.

Engineers estimated that the flames reached close to 3,000 degrees -- hot enough to melt the green steel frame and bolts of the I-580 overpass.

Jennifer Summers, 36, was driving from her costume-design job in San Francisco home to the Oakland hills when she saw black smoke and realized the freeway was on fire. She quickly pulled off and looped around so she could see what was going on.

When she got out of her car, flames were shooting into the sky over multiple layers of freeway, and she could hear loud crackling and explosions.

"There were bright, bright orange flames and they were huge," Summers said. "There were cars driving through the flames. The first cars slowed down like they didn't know what to do and then kept going. I was shocked."

Summers said dozens of vehicles stopped to watch as the flames grew and the freeway collapsed with a horrendous sound in a torrent of fire and rubble.

"There was nothing you could do," she said. "I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, this is going to be a nightmare, with the traffic problems we already have.' "

No sign of the truck remained by daybreak. A Caltrans worker held up his thumb and forefinger an inch apart to describe how big the tanker was by then.

John Goodwin, a spokesman for the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the maze is one of the worst spots for traffic in the Bay Area. He anticipates that the impact of Sunday's fire will extend well beyond the East Bay.

"This really strikes at the very center of the Bay Area freeway network," he said, predicting that closure of the two overpasses will "have a ripple effect" across the region.

"It will put more traffic on the San Mateo Bridge, the Golden Gate and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge," Goodwin said.

This wasn't the first major crash to clog the crucial traffic corridor through Oakland. On Feb. 5, 1995, a tanker loaded with liquefied gas crashed and burned in the MacArthur Maze, killing the driver, injuring 10 other people and creating an all-day traffic jam.

Witnesses said at the time that the tanker, which was changing lanes when it skidded out of control, created a 100-foot-high fireball after it crashed on the connector between westbound I-80 and eastbound I-580, which is immediately northeast of the scene of Sunday's crash and fire.

The 1989 collapse of the Cypress Structure during the Loma Prieta earthquake caused years of detours and traffic problems in the same area.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ANATOMY OF THE COLLAPSE
3:41 a.m.: James Mosqueda, a Sabek Transportation employee, was heading south along I-880 where it passes beneath eastbound I-580 when the gasoline tanker he was driving overturned and caught fire, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Underneath the roadway:

-- The I-580 overpass was exposed to flames estimated to be about 3,000 degrees. The overpass made of concrete and asphalt was held up by a lattice of structural steel beams attached to concrete columns.

Imminent collapse

-- 3:55 a.m.: The overpass was buckling as firefighters arrived. Steel is known to lose half of its rigidity at 1,000 degrees and begins to melt at 2,750 degrees.

Fallen roadway -- 4:02 a.m.: The I-580 overpass collapsed onto I-880. The driver had walked away from the accident and is being treated for burns to his face, head and neck.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HEAT TRANSFORMATIONS
Engineers estimate Sunday뭩 flames reached close to 3,000 degrees. Here뭩 a breakdown of heat뭩 effects.

Molten lava: 3,140?

Iron melts: 2,797?

Steel melts: 2,750?

Gold melts: 1,947?

Silver melts: 1,763?

Steel loses half its rigidity: 1,000?

Lead melts: 622?

Water boils: 212?

Source: "Comparisons" by the Diagram Group and Chronicle research



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ontheway]

Read the Info:

Key facts:

1. Witnesses saw the bridge buckle and collapse. That means it was the effects of the fire that caused the steel support members to lose strength enough to bend.

2. There is no report yet that the steel became liquid or "molten."

3. See the "Heat Transformations" chart:
.... "Steel loses half of its rigidity at approx 1000 degrees." This means that the estimated (wild assed guess) temp of 3000 degrees reported in the article is not necessary to have resulted in the bending and fall of the bridge. It does mean that the temperature was enough to cause this bridge to fall due to fire. The fire weakened the steel enough to lose its strength and bend, like cooked noodles bend, without actually melting or becoming "molten."

This does indeed lend credence to the arguement that the WTF twin towers collapsed due to a weakening and bending of the steel leading to collapse. And only 1000 degrees F. is needed. The steel does NOT have to melt or be molten.

Building 7 has been absolutely proven to have fallen due to the fire weakening the steel. There was zero redundancy in the building design. Only ONE steel member had to lose strength and bend to bring down the whole building, due to a TERRIBLE design. It's good no one died in Building 7 as the engineers would have faced major lawsuits for this design failure if anyone had died. Although, it was the idiots who installed the fuel tanks that were not planned for and which fueled that fire who are to blame for the fire, building such a huge cantilevered structure was totally irresponsible.

As far as the twin towers are concerned, it is quite possible for an impact or some other damage to lead to collapse LONG AFTER the actual event or impact. Buildings have been known to fall hours or days after an earthquake. Weakened members gradually fail, increasing the load on the remaining members which may also have been damaged. Eventually, a critical point is reached where the whole structure loses its integrity and catastrophic failure follows. Although the fires could have contributed by weakening the steel, and indeed may have precipitated the collapse, the collapse of the twin towers still more closely resembles a gradual failure due to the impact by the two airliners.

[ED209]

Why planes? Why not just blow the damn buildings up?
You'd still get your war and fear on.

[cerulean808]

ED209

[ED209]

[EFLtrainer]

[cerulean808]

The burden of proof rests on you EFL Trainer, your the the one positing the incredulous explanation, you need to come up with irrefutable, compelling evidence and lots of it.

ED209, good point, misread your post.

[huffdaddy]

[EFLtrainer]

[huffdaddy]

[EFLtrainer]

[huffdaddy]

[EFLtrainer]

[EFLtrainer]