I-95 Interstate Overpass Collapses in Philadelphia After Tanker Fire

Part of Interstate 95 in northeast Philadelphia was shut down in both directions on Sunday after a tanker truck believed to be carrying gasoline caught fire, causing part of the highway to collapse, officials said.

A tanker driver was on an offramp of Route I-95 North when a crash or other incident sparked a fire below the highway lanes, which run overhead, said Brad Rudolph, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

“That structure quickly collapsed with the heat of the fire as big as it was,” he said. “And then the southbound structure was also shut down because it was compromised by the fire as well.”

Mr. Rudolph said officials were assessing what options they had to restore traffic to the busy highway, which carries about 160,000 vehicles daily.

“I don’t know if that’s a week or two weeks,” he said, adding that his department’s first option was “to get it open as quickly as possible if we can do so.”

There was no immediate word about the driver. Mr. Rudolph said the Pennsylvania State Police were leading an investigation into possible deaths or injuries from the fire.

Mr. Rudolph said that the cause of the fire was still being investigated but that nothing so far suggested it was intentional. He said the fire was on the ramp from Route I-95 North to Cottman Avenue, which juts out and then goes underneath the highway.

“It seems like it was a vehicle accident,” Mr. Rudolph said. “That ramp can be tricky if you’re going at a high rate of speed.”

Derek Bowmer, a Philadelphia Fire Department battalion chief, said at a news conference on Sunday morning that later explosions of manhole covers were the result of “the runoff of maybe some fuel or gas lines that could have been compromised by the accident.”

Dominick Mireles, the director of the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management, said at the news conference that the agency was concerned about the possible “environmental impacts” the fire and collapse could have on the Delaware River, which runs parallel to the damaged section of the highway.

The Philadelphia Water Department, which draws on the Delaware for some of its supply, said there was “no impact to water quality” on Sunday afternoon.

“Philadelphia Water Department staff are continuing to monitor the situation and working with other agencies in the emergency response,” it said.

The area where the fire occurred includes auto shops, construction companies and Four Seasons Total Landscaping, the family-operated business where Rudolph W. Giuliani, then former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, held a news conference in 2020 as major news organizations began to call the election for President Biden.

All lanes of Route I-95 between the Woodhaven and Aramingo exits, and some nearby streets, were closed on Sunday afternoon, the city of Philadelphia said in a news release.

The city advised commuters to plan alternate routes for their weekday commutes and encouraged them to use public transportation. State and local agencies were creating detours, including on Pennsylvania Route 63, Interstate 676 and U.S. Route 1, the city said.

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said he had been briefed about the fire. The federal transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, said on Twitter that he had offered the governor federal assistance “to help with recovery and reconstruction.”

In April, part of Interstate 95 in Connecticut was shut down after a fuel tanker crash on a major bridge. The explosion killed one person and sent home heating oil into the Thames River, officials said.

In 2017, a part of Interstate 85 in Atlanta collapsed because of a fire. The contractor that replaced the damaged roadway, C.W. Matthews, said it took 44 days of uninterrupted work to finish the repairs.