A car hauler transporting several Teslas caught fire while traveling southbound on Interstate 5 just north of Balboa Boulevard on Saturday evening, shutting down southbound lanes for about seven hours, according to the California Highway Patrol.
By Monday, the truck route had been reopened after a lengthy closure for cleanup, according to officials with CHP.
The incident caused lengthy delays and standstill traffic for hours on both I-5 and State Route 14 in the Santa Clarita Valley.
Officers were dispatched to a vehicle fire at approximately 5:35 p.m., said Officer Carlos Burgos-Lopez, a spokesman for the CHP Newhall-area office, and on arrival they found a car hauler fully engulfed in flames while it was carrying Teslas, he added.
The incident prompted CHP officers to issue a SigAlert for at least two hours at 5:54 p.m., closing all southbound lanes of I-5, while firefighters with the Los Angeles City Fire Department worked on extinguishing the flames, Burgos-Lopez said.
The closure extended well into Saturday night, and as of 10 p.m., the SigAlert traffic app, which provides real-time traffic information, was telling users to expect delays of two hours or more, and the situation at the time was expected to extend into Sunday morning.
By 1:06 a.m. Sunday, the CHP reported that all southbound lanes of both I-5 and SR-14 were open to traffic, but the southbound truck routes through the Newhall Pass remained closed while work continued to clear the incident. Those truck route closures remained in place as of 7:30 a.m. Sunday.
Because a Tesla’s electric vehicle battery burns hotter and is more difficult to extinguish than a gas-powered car, a Hazmat team was also dispatched to the scene of the incident, Burgos-Lopez added.
A SigAlert was initially extended for an unknown period of time as the batteries in the vehicles may burn for a while, but during a follow up Burgos-Lopez stated all southbound lanes of the I-5 and the truck route were shut down.
No injuries were reported and the driver of the hauler was able to exit before the flames grew bigger, Burgos-Lopez said, but information on how the vehicle caught fire was unknown as officers were still actively investigating the cause.
According to the SigAlert app, traffic on the southbound lanes of I-5 was backed up as far as McBean Parkway and as far as Placerita Canyon Road on State Route 14.
As the closure extended into Saturday night, the closure became more than just a typical traffic delay for many motorists. The CHP traffic management website reported that some vehicles were running out of gas while trying to wait it out. One caller reported to the CHP at 10:05 p.m. that “her mother has been stuck on the southbound SR-14 with her two kids since 2000 hours (8 p.m.); kids have to go to the bathroom.”
Some vehicles were seen backing off the I-5 via the on-ramp at Lyons Avenue. Commuters were advised to take The Old Road to avoid the closure but heavy traffic was to be expected.
