Vallejo firefighters averted what could have been a major disaster after a fuel tanker truck caught fire on the freeway in the wee hours of Monday morning, a Vallejo Fire Department spokesman said.
Vallejo firefighters responded to a fuel tanker truck on fire on the westbound Highway 37 to Fairgrounds Drive exit, before dawn on Sunday, Battalion Chief Dave Urrutia said.
“The double tires had caught fire and the vehicle was carrying diesel,” he said. “It was probably a brake fire coming off the hill, but I’m told it melted some of the aluminum (around the tires).”
Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze before the tank was breached, he said.
“That would have been a big incident,” Urrutia said. “That would have been ugly. We’d still be out there.”
Two separate Sig-alerts were issued around this situation, CHP Officer Eric Anderson said. One, at the time of the episode — sometime around 2 a.m., until the fire was out and the tanker was moved to the shoulder — and the second at about 6:45 a.m. to allow the diesel fuel it carried to be transferred to a second tanker.
That second Sig-alert was canceled just after 9 a.m., he said.