Traffic was moving again Wednesday night along Interstate 80 following a fiery tractor-trailer crash Wednesday morning, but the cleanup isn't finished.
The Trumbull County HazMat team is still working alongside others in the spot where a second trailer fell over the bridge. It landed in a field and no homes or businesses are there, but the charred trailer and hazardous materials are making it a complex cleanup job.
"We have to get this environment back to the way it was prior to the incident," said Don Waldron, Trumbull County HazMat chief.
The first focus of the cleanup was the bridge area so it could re-open to traffic. That happened around 7 p.m. Wednesday. But as traffic started flowing again, HazMat workers and EPA officials were still busy.
"We had propane, ethanol, oils, greases on board," Waldron said.
All of which leaked out of the trailers, including the one that dangled over the I-80 bridge after the crash.
"Fortunately it went very smoothly for us. We were able to contain it and control it," Waldron said.
A green vacuum truck and storage container from Inland Environmental Emergency Response Service was sucking up the hazardous materials from the ground. It's then pumped into a bin and will eventually be hauled away.
Waldron said there's no environmental concerns. Interstate Towing out of Macedonia was removing the semi-truck debris. The smell of leaked materials affected some of the workers.
"It's kind of a little bit tough to work through. We got to take a little bit of a break here and there," said Karl Harris of Interstate Towing.
A takeaway from this crash is the growing need for alcohol-based foam. It's the best way to put out fires involving ethanol. Right now many rail and trucking companies have it, but not emergency agencies in the area.
"It's being looked at. I know we're going to have to look at it a lot closer, especially with interstate 80," Waldron said.
