Blogimore.com

Our otherwise lazy and boring Sunday was interrupted by a tanker fire on the Hanover Street on-ramp to I-95. I was laying on the couch reading a book when I heard the police chopper fly over and announce something over the loudspeaker. Hearing the chopper or sirens is no big deal in our neighborhood, but the loudspeaker? Watching them chase down a perp? That’s rubberneck-worthy.

I rushed up to the roof to see a huge fire burning on the I-95 on-ramp from Hanover Street - maybe a half mile away. Three fire trucks were spraying water on it and the railing was hanging half-way off the bridge. Apparently a tanker truck turned over as it was making the sharp curve of the on-ramp. When it turned over, it scraped against the guard rail, which tore a hole in the trailer tank and ignited. The thing burned for 3 or 4 hours, despite the efforts of firefighters from both the Baltimore Fire Department and BWI Airport. They would spray water on it and it would go down for a while only to roar back to life. Then they’d spray chemicals on it (a lovely purple cloud). Again, it would flame right back up. They finally decided to let it burn itself out and just kept spraying water on the surface of the bridge to keep it from melting.

We stayed out there for nearly two hours (along with all of the other Federal Hillbillies) watching it burn. If not for the unfortunate death of the driver, it would have been an exciting evening.