Two big flatbed trucks collided earlier this week, starting a fire that sent a plume of black smoke and flame into the air and into a drainage gutter along Illinois Route 3 at Seventh Street.
The collision just before 9 a.m. Wednesday sparked a smoky fire in the cab of one of the big trucks, but leaking diesel fuel eventually burst into flame, and the escaping fuel mixed with the water being used to douse the truck fire caused a small river of fire that ran down a drainage gutter on the west side of the highway.
"The fuel was on fire with the water running underneath it," a witness said.
He said a firefighter working to put out the fire in the two tractor-trailer cabs almost got trapped between the fire in the gutter and the fire in the vehicles.
A group of Marathon Pipeline employees, who happened to be conducting a drill nearby, contained the water and fuel mixture, using a "boom," a snakelike device normally used to contain oil and fuel spills on waterways.
"It was fortunate. We happened to be conducting a boom drill at our dock facility, and then we were playing for real," said Bill Coulter, the foreman of the Marathon crew.
Coulter said when he and his men arrived, they saw only smoke coming from one of the truck cabs.
"There were a lot of diesel vapors in the air, and something electric in the truck touched it off," he said.
Eventually, the Roxana and Wood River Fire Departments were called out. The Wood River department brought a foam truck, but the fire was under control by the time it arrived.
Firefighters from Hartford initially were called out to a traffic crash with a fuel leak, but by the time they arrived, the fire had started.
The flames destroyed the cab of one truck and the engine compartment of another.
"It was all flames when I got here," said Leo Tomerlin of Hartford.
He said the flames were high enough to singe a utility wire stretching from east to west across Route 3 at Seventh Street.
The fire started after a southbound flatbed truck operated by DISS Trucking Co. made a leftward swing from the right-hand lane of Route 3 into the passing lane in order to turn right, westward, at Seventh Street into a narrow road that leads from Route 3 through a floodgate to the river side of the Mississippi River levee.
DISS stands for Dry Ice Sales and Service and is based in Paducah, Ky. The DISS truck was carrying big pipes, machinery and other equipment.
Lt. John R. Grigg, ranking officer of the Hartford Police Department, said another flatbed truck, operated by BSL Express, was southbound behind the Diss truck in the right-hand lane. The empty BSL truck collided with the passenger side of the DISS truck.
The DISS truck caught fire first, and the fire spread to the other truck operated by BSL Express.
"He turned left, then right," said Vasile Foltea, the driver of the BSL truck.
He said he put on the brakes, but too late to avoid the collision.
The name of the DISS driver was not available. Foltea was issued a ticket for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. Neither driver was injured.
The big blaze attracted several spectators and diverted southbound traffic on Route 3 through residential streets in Hartford.
The spectators said they were amazed at the wall of flames running down the edge of the highway and consuming all of the DISS truck cab and most of the BSL truck.
One watcher said the accident could have been worse had the Marathon pipeline crew not been nearby and had the BSL truck been loaded.
"Somebody used up one of their nine lives today," said Marsha Moore. "There are a lot of ways this could have been a lot worse."
