Cincinnati’s Daniel Carter Beard Bridge fire is reminiscent of other Ohio bridge fires and disasters

A massive fire that engulfed the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge and Interstate 471 over the Ohio River could have Cincinnatians recalling another major wildfire that cut off a major route between Ohio and Kentucky.

In 2020, Brent Spence Bridge that carries Interstates 71 and 75 over the Ohio River was closed for weeks following a crash that sparked a huge fire.

Here’s a look back at that disaster and other fires and bridge collapses around Ohio.

Need a detour? Fire closes Daniel Carter Beard Bridge. Here are other bridges to cross the Ohio River

Fire accident closes I-71/75 Brent Spence Bridge over Ohio River for six weeks in 2020

On November 11, 2020, a truck carrying potassium hydroxide crashed into a knife truck on the Brent Spence Bridge, causing a major fire that ended closing the Ohio River for six weeks.

According to 911 calls, the driver of the Old Dominion semi that crashed into a jackknife truck didn’t have time to get Hazmat paperwork before fleeing the truck, the Enquirer previously reported.

“It started catching fire and I just jumped out,” he said, telling a dispatcher he couldn’t get the paperwork in time.

Big Mac Bridge Fire: What to know about the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge

Neither he nor the driver of the knife rig was injured.

Repairs to the bridge included new steel support beams and new concrete sections on the upper and lower decks. The US Department of Transportation did $12 million in federal funds available for emergency repairs.

The bridge, which carries over 160,000 vehicles a day and is one of the busiest transport routes in the United States, reopened on December 22, 2020.

Tanker crash kills driver and starts fire on Route 8 ramp to I-271 in January 2024

On Jan. 27, the driver of a diesel tanker truck was killed after it went off a bridge on the Interstate 271 entrance ramp at State Route 8 north of Akron.

The truck, which was carrying 7,500 gallons of diesel, exploded, causing a huge fire that closed the bridge for several days, The Akron Beacon Journal reported. It reopened after inspections showed the damage did not affect the structural integrity of the bridge.

The Miamitown Bridge collapses during flooding in Cincinnati on May 26, 1989

A temporary bridge over the Great Miami River collapsed during widespread flooding on May 16, 1989, according to media reportssending four cars into the water. At least two people drowned, WCPO reported.

In November 1990, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a report blaming the Hamilton County Engineer’s Office for three factors that contributed to the bridge’s collapse, according to WCPO. These included:

Selection of a design by National Engineering, the company that built the bridge, that did not consider lateral loads
Failure to submit bridge design plans to the Ohio Department of Transportation for review as required by state law
Failure to promptly close the bridge when it became subject to significant debris loading

A barge pushes cargo under the Silver Memorial Bridge that crosses the Ohio River between Gallipolis, Ohio and Henderson, West Virginia. The bridge was completed in 1969 as a replacement for the collapsed Silver Bridge, although it is located about 1 mile downstream from the original. The smaller green bridge is the Point Pleasant-Henderson Bridge over the Kanawha River, connecting Point Pleasant and Henderson, West Virginia, at the point where the Kanawha flows into the Ohio River. Photographed on January 11, 2022. — A barge pushes cargo under the Silver Memorial Bridge that crosses the Ohio River between Gallipolis, Ohio and Henderson, West Virginia. The bridge was completed in 1969 as a replacement for the collapsed Silver Bridge, although it is located approximately 1 mile downstream from the original. The smaller green bridge is the Point Pleasant-Henderson Bridge over the Kanawha River, connecting Point Pleasant and Henderson, West Virginia, at the point where the Kanawha flows into the Ohio River. Photographed on January 11, 2022.

The Silver Bridge in Gallipolis collapses into the Ohio River on December 15, 1967

The Silver Bridge crossed the Ohio River from Gallipolis to Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Opened to traffic in 1928, it was the first bridge in the country to use an innovative eye-bar suspension system rather than a traditional cable-stayed suspension, according to West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

However, one of those eye bars had a small unseen flaw. Eventually, the faulty eye bar cracked and began to corrode, out of sight of the public or bridge inspectors. Around 5:00 p.m. on December 15 — during rush hour — the eye bar failed, triggering a series of other failures that caused the bridge to collapse. Thirty-one vehicles plunged into the Ohio River, killing 46 people.

This article originally appeared on the Cincinnati Enquirer: The Cincinnati bridge fire is reminiscent of other Ohio bridge disasters