Ali G.
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Brush fire, fog cause 70-vehicle pileup near Lakeland; 4 dead
The Associated Press
COURTESY OF WFOR-CBS4
An aerial shot of a bush fire near Lakeland, Florida shows the thick fog that caused the lack of visibility leading to a 50 car pile up crash on Wednesday.
POLK CITY, Fla. --
About 70 vehicles crashed Wednesday on a highway blanketed by fog and smoke from a brush fire in central Florida, and local officials said four people were killed and 38 were injured in the mangled, fiery wrecks.A stretch of nearly 15 miles of Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando was closed by several accidents, including the 70-vehicle pileup. Aerial footage showed the soupy mix of fog and smoke covering the landscape for miles and giving the sky an eerie golden color in the morning.
The poor visibility hampered rescue efforts, forcing officials to walk along the closed stretch of I-4 checking individual vehicles for injuries, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Coggins said. The conditions later cleared up, showing charred trucks and crumpled cars pinned underneath some tractor trailers.
The names of the victims have not been released, but all died at the scene. Coggins confirmed that 38 people were injured, five of them seriously.
Crews worked late in the morning to rescue one man pinned beneath an overturned truck. Numerous tractor trailers overturned on the roadway, including a tanker. At least six of them burned completely.
"Everything came to a halt," said Robert Ellison, a motorist driving east on the highway about 6 a.m. "You can't see your hand in front of your face."
Ellison told The Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV that he narrowly avoided an accident and stopped to try to help trapped motorists. "There was no indication of anything. Then you couldn't see 5 feet," he said.
One of the first accident victims was a sheriff's deputy, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. Deputy Jack Turner III told Judd that conditions on the road worsened suddenly.
"'It was clear, it was a little foggy, then it was total darkness,'" Judd recounted the deputy saying Wednesday morning.
The sheriff added that although Turner was shaken up, he helped move people to safety as vehicles continued to pile up - the sounds of metal grinding and gnashing in the darkness.
Turner was haunted, however, by those he couldn't save. "'I watched a man burn to death today,'" Judd recounted the deputy saying afterward.
The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the crash and the role of smoke from the fire that started as a controlled burn and grew out of control.
Judd said Wednesday morning he was "exceptionally concerned" about the decision to start a fire during dry conditions and days after a freeze likely added more tinder. State officials are still investigating how the fire got out of control.
Coggins said a contributing factor of the crashes was the fog, but downplayed the smoke from the fire. He said troopers patrolled the area earlier Wednesday morning and smoke was not an issue.
Since Tuesday, firefighters have battled the controlled burn that grew out of their grasp and charred 400 acres. The fire, which is burning roughly half a mile from the highway, is 90 percent contained, Division of Forestry spokeswoman Chris Kintner.
She said forestry workers notified the highway patrol that smoke from the blaze could mix with fog.
Signs warning people of the smoke were placed on the interstate, but Kintner said she did not know if the they were illuminated.
There is no estimate on when I-4, the main east-west artery for central Florida, will reopen.
Video | Brush fire in Polk CountyQuelle: The Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/775/story/372518.html
