A GPL tanker truck fire, ignited by overheated brakes, forced the complete closure of a 40-kilometer stretch of the A1 Milan-Naples motorway in both directions between Orte and the Rome North junction for several hours. The incident struck during the peak mid-August holiday travel week amidst intense heat, trapping thousands of motorists for kilometers under the blazing sun.
Civil protection volunteers distributed water bottles attempting to alleviate the hardship, yet by evening hundreds of cars remained stranded. Many drivers reported receiving no aid. “We are thousands stuck on the A1 towards Rome for over two hours now,” wrote Angelo Angius on Facebook. “They say water was distributed. Nothing arrived here for anyone! We’re all trying to stay in our cars with engines running for air conditioning because it’s 42°C (108°F) outside. We don’t know what will happen – if we’ll spend the night here or if they’ll find a solution. But above all, there is no assistance whatsoever.”
The fire erupted near kilometer marker 525. Authorities believe flames started from the tanker’s overheating brake system but, fortunately, did not spread to the gas-filled tank. Firefighters extinguished the blaze but had to wait for the vehicle to cool for safety reasons before approaching. The tanker was later moved off the roadway, though full removal from the highway awaits the transfer of its GPL load to another tanker.
Initial closures around 4:15 PM affected only the Ponzano Romano to Rome North junction section, causing a 1-km queue towards Rome and a 2-km queue towards Florence. Fearing a potential GPL tank explosion, authorities subsequently extended the shutdown to the full 40 km between Orte and Rome. Queues rapidly grew to 4 km southbound (Rome) and 2 km northbound (Florence), with trapped vehicles inside the closed section forming lines of 10 km south and 7 km north.
This tanker incident is the latest disruption crippling Italian highways during the busy August period. Days earlier, also on the A1 between Arezzo and Valdarno toll booths, a violent multi-vehicle collision crushed an ambulance from the Misericordia of Terranuova Bracciolini between two heavy trucks. That crash killed three people and injured fifteen around 11:30 AM, effectively splitting Italy in half for hours. The southbound carriageway reopened at 3:30 PM, while the northbound (Milan) lane, where the crash occurred, reopened after eight hours.
Travel chaos extended beyond roads on Wednesday afternoon. Shortly before 5:30 PM, rail traffic in the Marche region was halted between Marzocca (Senigallia) and Montemarciano (Ancona) after a man was fatally struck by the Frecciarossa 89033 high-speed train traveling from Milan to Lecce with approximately 460 passengers on board. The incident also disrupted other high-speed train services.
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