A minivan somehow caught fire in the Caldecott Tunnel at around 10 am Monday morning, snarling traffic for multiple hours, but the eastbound tunnel bore in which the vehicle caught fire was reopened at about 1 pm.

The drive from Orinda to Oakland was highly disrupted when an SUV caught on fire inside the Caldecott Tunnel just before 10 am Monday morning, according to the Bay Area News Group. Both eastbound lanes of the tunnel were closed briefly and the lane (or bore) in which the fire happened did not reopen until about 1 pm. There were fortunately no injuries reported.


Oakland Fire Department crews managed to put the fire out within about an hour, per the News Group. By noon, the vehicle had been towed out of the tunnel. SFGate reports that one eyewitness said the fire was caused by a car crash, though that has not been confirmed. Both bores of eastbound lanes were closed entirely after the fire, though one of them reopened after about 35 minutes.


That still held up traffic for a while, as the firsthand video above shows (though the claim that the vehicle was a Tesla is incorrect).

“Anytime you have a fire that’s in a confined space like a tunnel, it can be obviously very hazardous for other drivers that are entering and exiting the tunnel or passing through it,” Oakland Fire Department spokesperson Michael Hunt told SFGate. “It can also can cause hazards for vehicles that are approaching the tunnel because they don’t actually know what they’re driving into.”

The driver was reportedly dragged out of the vehicle by another motorist, and escaped injury. Bay Area News Group adds that “preliminary reports suggested that a passerby gave the driver of the burning vehicle a ride out of the tunnel.”


Though as of 1 pm Monday, the California Highway Patrol reported that the second eastbound bore was reopened, and traffic was flowing as normal again.

Related: Car Fire in Caldecott Tunnel Snarls East Bay Traffic, Closes Parts of the Tunnel for Hours [SFist]

Image: @anibunbun via Twitter