San Pedro freeway reopened after big rig carrying lithium-ion batteries sparks fire

LOS ANGELES - The 47 Freeway in San Pedro reopened late Friday night, more than a day after the highway was shut down due to an overturned big rig and a lithium-ion battery fire in the roadway. The day-long backup was a traffic nightmare for both commuters and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Los Angeles Fire Department officials said the crash was reported just before noon on Thursday, Sept. 26, in the 900 block of North Seaside Avenue. 

LAFD spokesman David Ortiz said on Friday morning that the batteries continued to emanate heat.

"We have drones that are monitoring the heat. It’s hard to tell because these are sealed batteries, and we don’t know if these chain reaction thermal runaways will continue to reignite or by us moving it, make a bigger problem and create another fire," Ortiz explained. 

By 10 p.m. on Friday, crews were able to move the container with the batteries and the tractor portion of the truck from the freeway separately. The LAFD reported that all hazardous materials had been cleaned up, and that there was no damage to the freeway. The road was reopened.

One of the main reasons that the move took so long was that firefighters are not able to just put water on burning lithium batteries, because they can continue to burn underwater. 

"In the case of this size of battery, we can put millions of gallons of water on it and eventually end up with millions of gallons of runoff that is a contaminant to the waterways here in the Port of Los Angeles." 

Meanwhile, traffic was backed up for miles both Thursday and Friday. The 47 Freeway was closed between Harbor Boulevard on the west side of the Vincent Thomas Bridge and the 710 Freeway to the east. The Vincent Thomas Bridge was closed until late Friday night.

There were no reports of injuries or other hazardous warnings.