HESPERIA, CA. (Pain In The Pass) >> Look back 12 years ago today on May 5th, 2014, the Ranchero Road Bridge caught fire and partially collapsed onto Interstate 15 Freeway, causing the closure in both directions that caused a traffic nightmare.
The bridge was being built, and was about one week away from being poured concrete. The bridge caught fire about 1:30pm on a Monday afternoon when workers were cutting steel reinforcing bars with blowtorches and high winds, then carried the sparks into the wood “falsework” of the bridge. Shortly after the fire started debris was falling from the bridge onto northbound 15 freeway lanes initially forced a full freeway closure in both directions. Caltrans reopen lanes the next day.
Caltrans was able to reopen lanes the next day.
After the investigation they found a worker cutting rebar with a cutting torch spark and ignited a wooden section of the bridge nearby. With the afternoon winds were blowing up to 20 to 30 mph before and during the fire.
Ranchero Road Interchange Bridge was rebuilt and open to traffic after 9 months after devastating fire.
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