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On Saturday May 12 at approximately 2:50AM, Luzerne County 911 received a call reporting a motor vehicle accident on Interstate 81 Northbound at Exit 178. The accident was reported to involve a tanker truck and passenger car, with both reported to be on fire. Upon these reports, Avoca Fire Department along with the Dupont Fire Department were dispatched to respond to the incident. While units were responding, Luzerne County 911 reported that both vehicles appeared to be fully involved, and upgraded the response to include the First Alarm Tanker assignment. Avoca Fire Chief Chris VanLuvender was first arriving and reported the same, and indicated that both lanes of the interstate were closed. Chief VanLuvender also requested additional resources at this time, including a crash truck from the nearby Wilkes-Barre/'Scranton International Airport. An early attempt to extinguish the fire using the Airport's crash truck proved unsuccessful. The driver of the truck reported that he just filled up, and was carrrying 8,000 gallons of gasoline. Command officers then decided to let the product burn off for some time to allow additional resources to arrive and to limit the amount of runoff from the scene.
Nearly three hours into the incident, crews using two attack lines of AFFF foam were able to successfully extinguish the fire. The interstate remained closed for nearly 16 hours as crews needed to mill and repave the badly damaged roadway.The incident required a response from departments from three counties: Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming.
Submitted by Mike Lampman Lt - Avoca Rescue 112 |
