A DeKalb County interstate bridge did not suffer any structural damage Monday afternoon after a car carrier caught on fire and stopped underneath it, delaying traffic for hours, authorities said.
A tractor-trailer hauling cars was forced to stop on I-285 when one of the cars caught on fire, DeKalb fire Capt. Dion Bentley told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The driver stopped underneath the bridge where Covington Highway crosses the Perimeter, Bentley said.
Upgrade this to just a ⚠️ TRAVEL ADVISORY in DeKalb: I-285/nb (Outer Loop) at Covington Hwy. (Exit 43), as lanes just reopened from car carrier fire three hours ago. Delays from I-675 (Exit 52). I-75/85/nb stacked as an alt. #ATLtraffic https://t.co/wuaZctvMdM pic.twitter.com/B9AxWj6oBO
— 🔥Fireball Turnbull 🚁 (@DougTurnbull) April 19, 2021
No one was injured during the incident, but one car and the car trailer both were destroyed in the fire, according to Bentley.
Traffic delays lasted for hours on I-285 North as all lanes were closed while the Georgia Department of Transportation sent a structural engineer to review the condition of the bridge. No problems were found, GDOT spokeswoman Natalie Dale told the AJC, and the highway reopened just before 5 p.m.
Highways in and around metro Atlanta have taken a beating in recent weeks. Fallen signs shut down traffic on multiple highways last week, and one of those incidents involved a major fuel spill that required repaving on a section of I-285.
A highway bridge fire is likely to give flashbacks to many Atlanta travelers who remember the I-85 fire and bridge collapse. That incident took place almost exactly four years ago in April 2017 and had traffic ramifications that lasted for months.
Luckily, in this case, the damage was minor.
“Beams will have to be repainted, but that is it!” Dale said in an email to the AJC.
