A major fire erupted east of downtown Phoenix on Tuesday morning, engulfing a series of tanker trucks near 24th and Jefferson streets.
The blaze sent up a thick black plume of smoke over downtown Phoenix shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Two people were reported to have suffered burns from the fire, with one being transported to the Arizona Burn Center at Maricopa Medical Center, according to a Phoenix fire spokeswoman.
Firefighters arriving at the scene found two burn patients in the street who said they were working to transfer oil from one tanker to another when the fire broke out, Phoenix Fire Department Division Chief Shelly Jamison said.
Two patients who arrived at the burn center had to be decontaminated because they were covered in motor oil, according to a hospital spokesman.
Both patients were in critical condition, he said.
Phoenix firefighters with hazardous materials teams were assessing the situation to determine where they could fight the flames with water, the spokeswoman said.
The massive blaze forced the Arizona Department of Public Safety to close Interstate 10 in the area, according to a department spokesman.
The fire also forced evacuations of some hotels in the area, including a nearby Motel 6 where Rachel Poseyesva was sleeping Tuesday morning when she heard a loud explosion.
“I heard sirens and jumped up and came outside, heard more explosions and I asked one of the firefighters if we were safe or if we should evacuate,” she said. “He said it was probably a good idea.”
Emergency response units from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality were headed to the scene to gauge the impact, said Mark Shaffer, an agency spokesman. The fire’s heat sent the plume of smoke high into the air, which helps mitigate the environmental impact, he said.
“Our recommendation is that if anyone is impacted by the smoke, they should stay indoors with the windows closed and use internally circulating air from an air conditioning unit, not an evaporative cooling unit, which would suck in air from the outside,” he said.