Massive Fire Causes Atlanta Interstate Bridge To Collapse
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ATLANTA (CBSMiami) - A massive fire caused a bridge on Atlanta's busy I-85 to collapse during afternoon rush hour.
A massive cloud of thick, black smoke could be seen for miles as it billowed over the interstate, one of the main arteries in downtown Atlanta.
Just minutes after police stopped traffic onto the busy highway during rush hour, a portion of the bridge collapsed in a flaming heap.
No one was injured in the collapse.
Drivers traveling north and south on I-85 had nowhere to go and traffic stretched for miles.
These women got out of their cab and decided to walk.
"We just said pull over, were going to walk 1.4 miles, we have to walk," said Cindy Gersch.
Fire investigators are looking into whether reels of fiber cable underneath the freeway fueled the flames.
"I heard was that it was some PVC products that caught fire, I do not know why they did or what the source of their transport was but those are, those are questions that will hopefully be answered," said Georgia's Governor Nathan Deal.
Officials are calling the blaze "catastrophic."
"This is going to take time for inspection and it's going to take engineers time to figure out what they have to do to build it back," said Col. Mark McDonough, Commissioner of Georgia's Dept. of Public Safety.
That portion of I-85 carries close to a quarter of a million cars a day. It's now closed indefinitely. City officials are telling commuters to find alternate routes until repairs are made.