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?

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?
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