So I have an erie yellow glow in sky. I look out and see a fire on the lower deck of the interstate. Grab my binoculars and have a look-see. Its a Target truck with either a 2nd trailer or another truck following. I look for a while and realize there are no fire trucks any where to be seen or heard. OK, its night and they're all asleep. So I call 911 and the idiot dispatcher says they know. OK so why no big red trucks with loud sirens? Well, he says they've got to go to Ohio to come back to the fire. Clearly I'm wasting my time talking to dispatch because they were probably asleep too. Give it 15 more minutes and finally I hear sirens. Hell, I can get a bucket of water and walk there that fast. But then 911 isn't known for speedy response. Seems their job is to delay and make excuses. Fire folks sure make a lot of money to not respond. Its still burning now, over an hour later.

Looks like they've shut down both decks of the bridge. Back to the fire. Lots of small explosions, like small arm fire. A couple of big ones, like artillery fire hitting. For the first hour, I guess the fire folks were scared. Just now I'm starting to see trucks arrive. They were all over in Ohio having a party or something. Sure not pouring water where it might do some good. Fire boat actually arrived half hour ago. Don't know what good it would do, they surely can't pump water up to the fire.

This will cause a bunch of trouble in the morning. Folks trying to get to work won't be able to. They let it burn long enough they'll need structural engineers to inspect the thing to be sure it won't fall in the river. Oh, the fun of living on the water. All kinds of excitement.

What affect will the fire have on the structural integrity of that bridge? That's the I75/I71 bridge, correct? It's all steel except the road surface.

I’d hope they inspect it before letting traffic use it again. Isn’t the road surface either concrete or asphalt, neither of which could likely stand prolonged heat without damage?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
What affect will the fire have on the structural integrity of that bridge? That's the I75/I71 bridge, correct? It's all steel except the road surface.

I came upon fire on an access ramp to I-10 caused by a gasoline tanker flipping off a flyover. I called 911 when I saw a huge rising black cloud from 5 miles away. Dispatch blew me off; said it was probably a boat fire. The flyover and the lower roadway had to be replaced and were closed for months.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
What affect will the fire have on the structural integrity of that bridge? That's the I75/I71 bridge, correct? It's all steel except the road surface.

If the fire was hot enough and duration long enough, a steel bridge is likely highly compromised.

Big fire under I85 in Atlanta a few years ago caused a 90' section to collapse. Interstate was closed for a little over a month replacing it.

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:For the first hour, I guess the fire folks were scared

Depending on what was in the truck letting it burn might have been the best course of action. Mixed loads (Target/Wal-Mart/auto parts) can have all sorts of nasty things that don't react well to each other when burning. It also sounds like runoff into the waterway might have been a consideration as well.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
What affect will the fire have on the structural integrity of that bridge? That's the I75/I71 bridge, correct? It's all steel except the road surface.

If the fire is hot enough and burns long enough the steel will actually expand and lose a significant amount of strength.

One of the trucks was carrying potassium hydroxide which, according to a quick search, does not burn, but gives of poisonous gasses when burned. Diesel fuel from the trucks is what appears to have been burning.

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Big fire under I85 in Atlanta a few years ago caused a 90' section to collapse. Interstate was closed for a little over a month replacing it.

I remember that one. Wasn't someone storing old tires or something under that bridge?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
One of the trucks was carrying potassium hydroxide which, according to a quick search, does not burn, but gives of poisonous gasses when burned. Diesel fuel from the trucks is what appears to have been burning.

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Big fire under I85 in Atlanta a few years ago caused a 90' section to collapse. Interstate was closed for a little over a month replacing it.

I remember that one. Wasn't someone storing old tires or something under that bridge?

DOT was storing huge spools of fiber optic conduit. Homeless man set it on fire.

A 50 foot steel I-beam When heated under fire conditions will expand longitudinally 6 inches and lose its tensile strength. More than once I’ve arrived at a commercial building fire and noted the exterior wall cracked and pushed out which compromises the roof support.....a bridge would be no different in losing its structural integrity.

ETA...I see from the article one truck was carrying potassium hydroxide...well, that certainly complicated things from a firefighting aspect.....that stuff violently reacts with water...your options there all suck! Runoff into the river below sucks, putting the fire out sucks, letting it burn and potentially destroy a section of heavily used bridge sucks. There are no good answers there!

Just drove from Sharonville to Walnut Hills for a meeting, on 71 south. No traffic.

Back to the same old story. If you've ever witnessed a news story first hand, the TV and news reports bear little relation to the thing you actually saw. Guess paying them the big bucks is better than them being homeless....maybe. One of the better things about this fire was the continued explosions. The media didn't bother (or know) about this stuff.

The reported timing was all off. Guess they didn't even get out of bed, and clearly living out in the wealthy suburbs couldn't see anything. Its making me wonder if our society is balanced on way too many overpaid folks not doing a job.

On the positive side of all this, maybe they'll stop heavy truck traffic from using the bridge. Again. Fairly predictable that every few decades we'll have some kind of event that makes the trucker go around the congested center of things. That causes them great difficulty and expense, but improves traffic. Simple fact, big trucks don't play well with cars. Keeping them separate helps the auto traffic and hurts the truckers.

The last time this was a problem, the suburban fire departments didn't want the big trucks either. They said they didn't have the equipment to deal with big truck wrecks and fires or spills. A false argument because the inner city departments just sat on their hands. All the equipment they used was their hands and fat asses. Well, that and parked on the interstate and partied. Probably grumbled because they lost paid sleep time.

For fun, watch and read stories from various news outlets. They never get it right and never have the same story about the same event. Always so different you wonder if they're talking about the same thing.

I'm retired now so I don't care about my "commute". It hasn't bothered my commute to the bathroom to take my morning leak. If it gets too complicated, I just sleep in.

I'm guessing short of some activist thinking closing 75 down is a tactical advantage for the movement, someone fell asleep at the wheel... 2:45 AM....

Brent Spence Bridge, started building it in the 60's it's not designed for the traffic it gets and the heavier trucks even though they have worked on it. I remember crossing it in the 70's going to Riverfront for games...

Bridge needs to be replaced, make it big, wide and safe, but then nobody will take the two day trip on 275 around downtown and the 75/71 split will be even more nuts to drive.

Did I ever tell y'all about the time we had dinner with another couple at the Spaghetti factory downtown, on the way home we caught a gal giving a hummer to a guy driving a Camaro on 75 North by Norwood in heavy traffic? Impressed that he kept it in his lane...

screen grab from an OHGO camera

Something similar happened on I-5 north of Seattle several years ago. The fire damaged the road deck so badly it had to be closed for several days.

semi jackknifed and was hit by another semi carrying potassium oxide hit it. Those trucks caught fire and you see what happened.

Gee, rburg doesn’t like the firemen...ok, I’ve heard it all before...you shouldn’t be paying the taxes that support your firemen, after all...they just party in the street and sleep in between...got it. Fuckers are overpaid assholes...check. I suppose you don’t like the doughnut eating cops either...sitting in their cars doing nothing.
(No offense to LE)

Funny, I’ve never heard the guy complain as I crawl across a weakened floor in absolute zero visibility and 300 plus degrees with shit falling apart all around me as I drag his sorry ass out of his inevitable demise. But I’m overpaid right? Or the family I cut out of a mangled car as their life is slipping into the gutter....they don’t seem to have a problem with the overpaid fire guys.

I’m due to retire soon, it’s a fucked up job and I’ve managed to survive to this point...28 years later...surgically repaired knee from going through a floor looking for some fuck stick that just couldn’t bother to put a fuckin battery in his smoke detector Which would have alerted him to GTFO....exposed to every imaginable contagious disease and having to see unimaginable shit that just can’t be unseen....ever!
Thanks for the support rburg....on behalf of all the emergency service guys out there! We just love our critics

Rant off

quote:

Originally posted by cgode:
Gee, rburg doesn’t like the firemen...ok, I’ve heard it all before...you shouldn’t be paying the taxes that support your firemen, after all...they just party in the street and sleep in between...got it. Fuckers are overpaid assholes...check. I suppose you don’t like the doughnut eating cops either...sitting in their cars doing nothing.
(No offense to LE)

Funny, I’ve never heard the guy complain as I crawl across a weakened floor in absolute zero visibility and 300 plus degrees with shit falling apart all around me as I drag his sorry ass out of his inevitable demise. But I’m overpaid right? Or the family I cut out of a mangled car as their life is slipping into the gutter....they don’t seem to have a problem with the overpaid fire guys.

I’m due to retire soon, it’s a fucked up job and I’ve managed to survive to this point...28 years later...surgically repaired knee from going through a floor looking for some fuck stick that just couldn’t bother to put a fuckin battery in his smoke detector Which would have alerted him to GTFO....exposed to every imaginable contagious disease and having to see unimaginable shit that just can’t be unseen....ever!
Thanks for the support rburg....on behalf of all the emergency service guys out there! We just love our critics

Rant off

Thank you for your service from a retired 'civil servant'.

quote:

Originally posted by cgode:
Gee, rburg doesn’t like the firemen...ok, I’ve heard it all before...you shouldn’t be paying the taxes that support your firemen, after all...they just party in the street and sleep in between...got it. Fuckers are overpaid assholes...check. I suppose you don’t like the doughnut eating cops either...sitting in their cars doing nothing.
(No offense to LE)

Funny, I’ve never heard the guy complain as I crawl across a weakened floor in absolute zero visibility and 300 plus degrees with shit falling apart all around me as I drag his sorry ass out of his inevitable demise. But I’m overpaid right? Or the family I cut out of a mangled car as their life is slipping into the gutter....they don’t seem to have a problem with the overpaid fire guys.

I’m due to retire soon, it’s a fucked up job and I’ve managed to survive to this point...28 years later...surgically repaired knee from going through a floor looking for some fuck stick that just couldn’t bother to put a fuckin battery in his smoke detector Which would have alerted him to GTFO....exposed to every imaginable contagious disease and having to see unimaginable shit that just can’t be unseen....ever!
Thanks for the support rburg....on behalf of all the emergency service guys out there! We just love our critics

Rant off

Thank You cgode well said.
Been there done that many times myself at all times of the day and night as a volunteer firefighter for many years.