A vehicle fire on the Ambassador Bridge snarled traffic after the bridge was shut down for two hours.
A pickup towing a recreational trailer caught fire early Tuesday afternoon on the span connecting Detroit and Windsor, halting traffic in both directions. Both were destroyed.
Either the truck or trailer was carrying 454 litres of diesel fuel.
“It was headed to Canada, and caught on fire on the American approach,” says Mickey Blashfield, the bridge’s director of governmental relations.
Bridge officials are happy with how quickly the Detroit fire department responded.
The bridge deck had to be inspected before it was cleared for traffic.
“We've had a Hazmat scenario and while we don't know how this happened, it was a good training session,” Blashfield says.
While the fire could be seen for miles, the real impact was on the ground.
Hundreds of trucks sat idle.
“We're not making money sitting still,” says Bert Reaume.
“This is why we need a new bridge,” another trucker says. “If we had our second span, we wouldn't have had to stop traffic.”
The bridge was re-opened around 3 p.m.
