A grass fire erupted on Yerba Buena Island on Saturday afternoon, which shut down the lower deck lanes on the Bay Bridge for nearly two hours, causing a traffic headache for hundreds of drivers.
San Francisco fire officials reported the fire about 2:30 p.m., prompting the California Highway Patrol to quickly shut down the lower deck of the bridge along eastbound Interstate 80."Unfortunately, we had to inconvenience everyone," Fire Rescue Capt. Justin Schorr told KTVU. "We didn't want to close it. But we did it for safety."The inconvenience was caused by the fact that firefighters had to take over the bridge and cut through a fence to hose down the fire.
Schorr said that fighting the fire was challenging because of the heavy smoke and steep terrain on the island. Crews on fire boats from San Francisco and Alameda County assisted from the bay.At 4 p.m., Caltrans noted there was a five-mile backup from the bridge to the Interstate 280 interchange. All lanes were reopened at 4:30 p.m., but the traffic nightmare persisted into the evening. People posted videos of the stalled traffic on social media.
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