Fiery Crash Collapses California Freeway (Hey Rosie! Gas Fire Melts Steel!)

AP ^ | Apr 29, 4:45 PM (ET) | MARCUS WOHLSEN

[Captain Shamrock]

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - A heavily traveled section of freeway that funnels traffic off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed early Sunday after a gasoline tanker truck overturned and erupted into flames, authorities said.

Flames shot 200 feet in the air and the heat was intense enough to melt part of the freeway and cause the collapse, but the truck's driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported.

[Captain Shamrock]

Actually, I would say the steel was deformed into losing its ability to carry the weight of the freeway not melted like a steel smelter. However, the pictures tell the story of how an intensive gas fire can collapse a steel supported structure like a freeway bridge...or a skyscraper! Paging Rosie O'Donnell...Message for Rosie O'Donnell...

[bmwcyle]

Someone needs to rub this in Rosie’s face.

[joonbug]

Rosie won’t let facts get in the way of her loony rantings.

[pnh102]

Was Rosie O’Donnell driving on the freeway at the time and her excess mass caused it to collapse?

[Windcatcher]

Rosie needs to get her money back for her Structural Engineering degree.

/sarc

[Miss Marple]

Thank you. Please e-mail her at ABC. This is exactly what I thought when I read saw that story on Fox News.

[Retired Chemist]

What’s with these tanker crashes under highway over passes. We just had one in our area. It closed the road for a month.

[goldstategop]

Yep. If the temperature is HIGH enough, almost anything can be destroyed. The Oakland collapse is a lesson for those moonbats who still contend two jets could not have brought down the World Trade Center.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[PureSolace]

I’m sure thie event will give the no-good-niks an idea of possibilities in the future. Down with terrorism!

[Popman]

Gee, It's as plain as the nose on my face.

The "government" (cue: neocon music and Dick Cheney evil laugh track) set up this accident up as to proof Rosie was wrong and continue the 9/11 cover up.

[verum ago]

Was Rosie O’Donnell driving on the freeway at the time and her excess mass caused it to collapse?

nah, she was just close to have witnessed that it was really a controlled demolition.

[jazusamo]

O’Donut was the first person I thought of this morning when seeing this.

[cripplecreek]

A few years ago a tank truck carrying gasoline crashed and burned near here. A friend who works for the county took me to look at the aftermath.

It happened on a level stretch of highway and the damage to the road and surrounding area were amazing. The tar was burned right out of the asphalt leaving a crust of semi fused gravel. Trees 200 feet away were scorched and dying.

[Captain Shamrock]

It was either that or the fire! The only two things that could bring the freeway down.

[Normal4me]

She’s too busy rubbing something else on her face to comment...

[Phsstpok]

Instapundit had this a few hours ago:

FIRE MELTS STEEL: Somebody tell Rosie O'Donnell.

posted at 01:22 PM by Glenn Reynolds

His link is to a post on Transterrestrial Musings by Rand Simberg from this morning and links to the NBC 11 converage from the bay area.  I think there was a thread on the incident itself (without the Rosie tie in in the title) this morning as well.

I dearly hope someone in the news picks this up and rams it down that ugly manatee's throat.

It is pretty amazing to see, but  I remember when there was a gasoline tanker truck explosion inside one of the three tunnels in the hills above Oakland.  I knew the Bay Bridge, this interesection and those tunnels pretty well.  We had to take when we visited my brother and his family on the other side of the bay, beyond the Oakland hills, in Walnut Creek from our place in Pacifica.  Took out every car in the tube and they practically had to rebuild the inside of the tunnel from the furnace like heat. 

 

 

[TomGuy]

Rosie needs to get her money back for her Structural Engineering degree.

I think the dropped out --- of junior college.

[piytar]

but the truck's driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns

Um, you don't walk away from second degree burns, unless it's a TINY one.

[DrGunsforHands]

Don’t call Rosie a manatee. It’s insulting to manatees.

[Brilliant]

This is the SECOND time in history that fire has melted steel.