Norwalk’s Fairfield Ave bridge to be demolished following gasoline tanker fire on I-95

Updated at 7:30 p.m. with information from 5 p.m. press conference on bridge demolition as well as NPS announcement of school closing.

Interstate 95 will remain closed at least until Monday while the state tackles the job of demolishing the Fairfield Avenue overpass and the investigation continues into a three-vehicle accident Thursday morning involving a gasoline tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons that ignited a fire hot enough to melt steel.

The accident, which occurred just before sunrise, closed the highway in both directions from Exit 13 to 16, snarling the Merritt Parkway and surface streets, and prompting officials to appeal to motorists to avoid the area, or better yet, to stay home. A lone Norwalk firefighter, treated and released for a leg injury, was the sole injury in the fire that softened and warped the bridge’s steel beams. The inferno was extinguished within 70 minutes.

In addition to the tanker truck, a car and a tractor-trailer were involved in the accident. Officials said an estimated 6,500 gallons of the tanker’s gasoline burned off or spilled on the ground, but the spilled fuel and the foam used to suppress the fire were contained to a retention pond near the SoNo Collection mall, and “did not make it to the Norwalk River at all,” Richard Swann, DEEP assistant director of the emergency response unit, said at a midday briefing at Norwalk City Hall.

Regardless, hazmat crews put booms in place to protect the river from any other possible leak.

Due to ongoing traffic concerns and delays, all Norwalk schools will be closed Friday, per order of Superintendent Alexandra Estrella. The district will allow athletic games, drama performances, and proms to take place. All practices are canceled.

Demolition of the overpass was to begin at 3 a.m. Friday, with equipment being brought in from out of state, according to Garrett T. Eucalitto, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation. At a news conference Thursday in Hartford, he said contractors will work through the weekend. Depending on whether the existing abutments and center piers can be used — and taking into account the long lead time for ordering steel — he said it may be possible to build the replacement over the course of a year. He said that because of the bridge’s construction and the heavy traffic on the highway building a temporary span wasn’t feasible.

Gov. Ned Lamont, speaking at the same news conference, said that after the bridge is demolished, the heat-damaged lanes of I-95 will undergo a safety inspection to determine if they’ll need to be repaved before the highway can reopen. Lamont said he had spoken with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and had filed an emergency declaration with the federal government seeking reimbursement to rebuild the bridge, constructed less than 10 years ago as a replacement for the original bridge at that location.

Eucalitto said about 160,000 vehicles a day travel that section of the interstate. He said Metro-North Railroad will monitor its passenger load on the New Haven line and will have extra crews and trains available should it be necessary to increase capacity. Motorists, and especially truckers, are being advised to use interstates 84 and 87, with passenger vehicles also able to use the Merritt Parkway.

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said there was no danger from hazardous air in the area and runoff from the fire had no impact on the Norwalk River.

The Norwalk Fire Department said the incident was upgraded to a third-alarm assignment, with five engine companies and a truck company employed. In addition, numerous fire companies from Stamford responded to the scene, along with a foam unit from the chemical manufacturer King Industries.