I was relaxing and watching tv Saturday night, August 10th, 2024 when I heard Sullivan and St Clair`s tones drop for a Multi Vehicle Accident with fire, in the area of westbound I-44 near Menards Distribution Center. It was dusk and about to get full dark, I drove out on the South Service Road and turned around at the Glaser Road intersection, then returned and parked on the grassy shoulder of the Service Road, where many on-lookers were also trying to park to look at and film the accident scene on their phones….
…it was tough to figure out what was on fire in the center median of I-44 at first due to the darkness out there…I could see Sullivan Fire District on scene on the North Service Road with 3 or 4 trucks…westbound lanes of I-44 were shut down so that firefighters could access the multiple vehicles in the median, and other fire departments responding were advised to use the North Service Road to access the scene as well. I was able to hear St Clair as they approached from the east a few minutes later. The heavy fire on the left was from a flatbed tractor trailer with what appeared to be a partial load of asphalt roof shingles and there were two suv`s behind it and then another tractor trailer behind them…at least one of the suv`s was believed to be on fire as well and possibly occupied….more ambulances were on the way as well at least one air unit… and a second alarm was dispatched for additional firefighters and tankers…
…as the smoke cleared in a few minutes, it was apparent that a third tractor trailer was involved and later determined to be on top of one of the suv`s….
AVI 128 Multi Vehicle Accident 228 MM I-44
A few minutes after I arrived and started shooting photos, I heard the air unit above circling around slowly, waiting on instructions where to land…westbound traffic was stopped and held at the 228.6 mile marker, the accident was two tenths of a mile to the west, firefighters had multiple hoselines stretched across the westbound lanes from the trucks on the North Service Road….
AVI 129 Medical Airship Circling Scene of MVA
About 20 minutes after firefighters began applying water on all of the fires at the accident scene, they had the fires under control….
…and I left the area…as more on lookers were showing up and traffic on the South Service Road was ramping up, not a good situation there.