10/21/2022
The northbound side of the Buckman Bridge was shut down Friday morning because of a fiery crash involving a tractor-trailer and a box truck.
The box truck had medical supplies on it, and because firefighters used water to douse the blaze, the city’s biohazard team was called in to make sure the hazardous material doesn’t run off into the St. Johns River, according to a Jacksonville Fire and Rescue spokesperson.
“Some tanks that were popping and exploding that crews had to deal with. So the Hazmat team was called in to assist, they brought in PKP, an extinguishing agent that can assist us in putting the fire out. The problem now is there’s water runoff. It’s really not on the bridge.
It’s just before the water starts with some of the runoff running toward the bridge,” Capt. Eric Prosswimmer explained.
“So the Hazmat team is taking extra efforts to block that runoff from going into the St. Johns River because there’s foam and other chemicals involved, and we’re trying to prevent any kind of contamination, and we’ve called in the city bio team to assist us with that.”
Prosswimmer said no one was transported from the crash, which was at the beginning of the northbound side of the bridge.
He said the box truck hit the tractor-trailer, which was waiting on the bridge for a tow truck after a previous wreck Thursday night.
“The guy was actually asleep in his truck on the shoulder of the road waiting on a wrecker and a box truck collided with him, causing fire,” Prosswimmer said.
Both trucks burned in the crash Friday morning. “That’s going to be a difficult one. Obviously, FHP is going to try and open it as fast as they can. We have to make sure everything is cleaned up and safe.
The smoke was so bad at one point that it closed one of the lanes on the southbound side of the bridge also.
Traffic from I-295 on the northbound side is being diverted onto San Jose Boulevard before the bridge.
Prosswimmer said it’s unclear how long the northbound side of the bridge will remain closed.
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