A car traveling the wrong way on southbound Interstate 75 crashed into a gasoline tanker truck in Dayton, Ohio, creating a massive, smoky fire that shut down the interstate in both directions Sunday evening.

The blaze and freeway closure sent motorists searching for detours and triggered environmental concerns on reports of thick smoke entering part of the city’s sewer system.

Almost immediately after the crash, the conflagration sent thick, black smoke high into the air, attracting immediate attention.

A tanker carrying thousands of gallons of gasoline crashed on Interstate 75 near Main Street in Dayton, Sunday April 30, 2017.

The driver of the car, a 30-year-old Beavercreek man, was confirmed killed in the crash, Dayton police Lt. Mark Ponichtera said.

Police and the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office did not release the man’s name, nor the name of the truck driver who suffered minor injuries.

Northbound I-75 reopened Sunday night, but police said a portion of I-75 south could be closed for multiple days due to the damage to the highway.

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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