ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 7, 1997 TAG: 9703070065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: EAST LYME, CONN.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A tractor-trailer hauling cooking oil struck a bridge abutment during a windstorm Thursday on Interstate 95 and burst into flames, then was rammed by a car carrier unable to avoid the wall of fire.
``The wind was blowing me around pretty bad, and it caused me to lose control,'' driver Patrick Gary Spencer, 33, of Ridgeway, Va., said.
Winds were clocked as high as 63 mph along the shoreline Thursday.
Spencer was treated at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London and released Thursday evening, authorities said.
The 11:30 a.m. wreck left the highway covered with a thick layer of cooking oil and scraps of metal, closing I-95 in both directions for most of the day.
Fire Marshal Dick Morris said the entire road was afire when his department arrived.
``It was a mass inferno with flames as high as 25 to 30 feet,'' Morris said. ``Because of the oil, the black smoke was incredible. Smoke could be seen for miles.''
Chris Monterotti, of Uxbridge, Mass., the driver of the car carrier, said he could not stop in time to avoid plowing through the wall of fire and hitting the cab of the tractor-trailer. He suffered only singed hair. But his new car carrier was damaged and had to be towed, and flames burned paint off some of his cars.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB