Fuel tanker explosion on Connecticut bridge kills one person

A massive explosion shut down part of Interstate 95 on Friday after a fuel tanker crashed on a major bridge in Connecticut, sending a column of smoke and fire into the air and killing one person, state officials said.

A passenger vehicle’s blown-out tire set off a chain reaction that resulted in the explosion, which also injured at least two others on the bridge, melted part of the bridge’s outer guard rail and spewed a large amount of home heating oil into the waters of the Thames River, local officials said.

Sgt. Christine Jeltema, a spokesperson for the Connecticut State Police, said the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 “will be closed for quite some time” as officials determine whether the bridge, the Gold Star Memorial, is safe to cross.

“The intense, wicked heat could potentially compromise the steel, but we hope that is not the case,” said Gov. Ned Lamont at a news conference Friday. He said it was not clear how much fuel the truck was carrying at the time of the crash, but that its maximum capacity was 2,800 gallons.

The bridge, which connects the coastal cities of Groton and New London, is a major transportation link in eastern Connecticut near the state’s border with Rhode Island.

The cities it connects are home to several universities as well as a significant military presence, including the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Naval Submarine Base New London, the main naval hub for attack submarines on the East Coast.

An estimated 60,000 vehicles use the bridge each day, Garrett T. Eucalitto, the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, said at the news conference. A department spokesperson said later that an inspection had found no damage to the steel, and that the bridge would reopen to vehicle traffic.

Trooper 1st Class Pedro Muniz of the Connecticut State Police said that injuries were reported after the 11:30 a.m. accident but it was unclear how many or how severe they were. He said that officials were asking people to avoid the area.

Mayor Michael Passero of New London said in a text message to The New York Times that the driver of the oil truck died at the scene, and later added that two others were taken to a nearby hospital with injuries sustained in the explosion.

Buildings below the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, a pair of steel-truss bridges on the Thames River, were also on fire, the Connecticut State Police said on Twitter.

Several agencies, including the Coast Guard, responded to the blast. Officials closed the highway between exits 86 and 88, Muniz said, and the bridge was closed in both directions for part of the day.

Amtrak reported one delay along the Northeast corridor, which has tracks near the accident, but service resumed within 30 minutes, according to Jen Flanagan, a spokesperson.

Fatal accidents involving tanker trucks are not uncommon in the United States. Collisions with large trucks killed 5,759 people in 2021, out of a total of about 40,000 fatal crashes, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the latest year for which data is available. That was an increase from 4,870 people killed in such crashes in 2020, it said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.