Two people were hospitalized after a fiery three-vehicle collision that threatened to ignite nearby brush near Castaic on Wednesday.
A first-alarm response was called for fire at 4:18 p.m. near the southbound side of Interstate 5, just north of Templin Highway.
“It’s not a brush fire — turns out it was an RV or trailer of some kind,” said Sky Cornell, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Cornell said the initial call came in as a brush fire, but was changed once units arrived on the scene and saw that it was a multi-vehicle collision involving a trailer.
As of 4:47 p.m. the blaze had not spread to any nearby brush, but according to Cornell, the burning trailer was said to have propane tanks on it that could prove explosive.
Two other vehicles were involved in the initial collision, which occurred underneath a freeway overpass, and all three vehicles were reportedly on fire.
Firefighters successfully extinguished the three-vehicle blaze within the hour, and prevented the fire from spreading to any brush. All responding fire department units went available by 5:46 p.m.
At least two patients were transported to the hospital, according to fire department officials.
The traffic collision resulted in a SigAlert being issued by California Highway Patrol officers at 4:34 p.m. and was to be in effect for an unknown duration. The three left lanes were shut down while first responders worked to arrive on the scene, and the furthest right lane remained open to allow the fire department through, according to CHP officials.
While waiting for tow trucks to move the burned-out vehicles off the road, CHP officers were diverting traffic off the freeway near Templin Highway and then back on once they had passed the collision.
