Separate Car Fires Plug Marsh Creek Road/Caldecott Tunnel Saturday

A pair of smoky but unrelated car fires sparked a sizable fire response to Marsh Creek Road in Clayton as well as an eastbound bore of the Caldecott Tunnel on Saturday, paralyzing traffic and severely damaging the involved vehicles.

The first fire was reported at 11:03am after a delivery van caught fire in the 15000 block of Marsh Creek Road, flames from the burning vehicle spreading to adjacent vegetation. Minutes later, at 11:23am, reports began to arrive of a white sedan burning in Bore 2 (eastbound direction) of the tunnel with occupants of the car and drivers in nearby vehicles reversing out of the tunnel in an effort to flee the smoke.

Traffic was disrupted for more than an hour at each location as crews mopped up but no injuries were reported.

Firefighter strides past the burning shell of an Amazon truck believed to have sparked a fire in Clayton today.