I 10 shut down in Phoenix AZ... @ rush hour

[Romania2]

Around 1600 hours we responded to I-10 for a vehicle fire that turned out to be a service truck with welding equipment in the back. This included cylinders of oxygen and acetaline (left on :mad , multiple 5 gallons cans of gas and ether (?). Well, needless to say 500 gallons of water did more or less nothing for this fire. As the Balance of a 2-1 haz-mat assignment assignment responded, units were directed to an appartment complex adjacent to the fire and a supply was established and masterstream was placed in service. It took 2 hours to mitigate the incident which, once big water was on the fire, went very smoothly.
However, there was another problem. This all happened during rush hour on I-10 heading out of Phoenix and traffic was stopped dead for two hours. Traffic was backed up all the way through Phoenix! Add to this senerio 110 degree weather, end of the day tempers, and a women in labor. DPS was able to start diverting traffic but overheating cars and people became a problem. Has anybody ever delt with a similar situation? How did you handle it?

[RES14CUE]

This happens (not the same scenario, but similar) on the capital beltway which includes I-95. The beltway surrounds DC. It has enourmous congestion as is, especially at rush hour. When they have to shut it down it is a mess. Just a couple of months ago during sweltering heat, a tar tanker flipped spilling hot tar near the Wilson Bridge. This bridge is on of only a handfull of routes across the potomac between Maryland and Virginia. There really is no good way to handle this except getting the road at least partially open as soon as possible and getting the word out to avoid the area.

[Romania2]

THe problem with getting the word out is that most people don't pay attention to the traffic signs or the radio as we found out yesterday.