LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Friday morning, a truck carrying hazardous materials, heading to a solar farm in Wisconsin, crashed and caught fire on I-15 northbound near Baker, sparking a shutdown on the road to Las Vegas that lasted almost two full days.
“This type of situation hasn’t really been dealt with before,” said CHP Officer Shane Hernandez.
Saturday morning, California Highway Patrol Barstow posted on social media, estimating that I-15 would reopen by noon—but that did not happen.
At 1 p.m., they said crews were still assessing the situation.
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“How do we keep all of our crew on scene safe? How do we keep motorists safe? And how do we get this moved, either off the roadway, closer to the desert, totally dispose of it? How do we get rid of it as quickly as possible?” said Officer Hernandez.
A few hours later, CHP announced the closure would remain in place for an “unknown duration.”
Officer Hernandez said they had to call in hazardous materials experts after learning that the burning container was not lithium-ion, which responders are more familiar with, but rather lithium iron—a newer material used for solar panels.
“If they thought that it was lithium-ion instead of this lithium iron, it would probably be not necessarily easier, but the issue of the fire is a lot more commonly known, and so they would have a better idea of how to deal with the hazardous materials.
“Because of how new the material is, it hasn’t really been dealt with in San Bernardino County, but really in the country. And that was the reason why a lot of these specialists and these different agencies were having to be consulted, as well as the manufacturer.”
By Saturday night, CHP said attempts to move the container had been unsuccessful.
“The contents of the container were still on fire, and as the contents started to go from a fire to a smolder, they were still venting off out of the container, so any little movement to the container automatically reignited the hazardous material,” said Officer Hernandez.
“The original thought was they brought out some heavy equipment, and they were going to push the container further into the desert, but once they started doing that, it fully burst out into flames again, and obviously the crews had to pull back to a safe distance for their own safety.”
So, they brought in even more heavy machinery to build a smooth surface to safely drag the burning container into the desert.
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“Because of how soft the sand is in that location, they basically had to construct a road from the freeway out into the desert to what their safe distance was.”
Early Sunday morning, CHP announced the hazardous materials had been moved, and the freeway was back open.
Officer Hernandez said the container remains isolated in the desert—still possibly smoldering—with a crew monitoring it until it can be safely removed.
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