Man who oversaw cleanup of I-95 Bridgeport crash in 2004 reflects on Norwalk fire
George Estrada says the I-95 crash in Bridgeport in 2004 was the most catastrophic event he had ever worked on, up until that point.
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A man who helped with the cleanup of an interstate fire in Bridgeport 20 years ago says Thursday’s crash brings back a lot of memories.
News 12’s Frank Recchia spoke with George Estrada, of Bridgeport, who says as he's been looking at the I-95 fire in Norwalk on his phone all day, and his thoughts have been going back to Bridgeport in 2004.
TRAFFIC ALERT: I-95 closed until at least Monday in Norwalk. Here's how the tanker fire is affecting the area.
Estrada, who is now the public works director for the town of Trumbull, headed up the Public Facilities Department for the city of Bridgeport in 2004 when a tractor-trailer collided with a car on an elevated section of the interstate, igniting a fire that caused part of the southbound road in Bridgeport to buckle.
He says it was the most catastrophic event he had ever worked on, up until that point, and it took weeks to clean up the mess.
Fast-forward to now and Estrada says he turned on News 12, saw Thursday’s fire and it brought him back to 2004.
“It was seeing the bridge engulfed in flames with that tanker under it. I knew that was going to be a significant impact and it was not going to be something that was going to be cleaned up by lunchtime today. I'm sure that this is going to be an ongoing cleanup and preparation to reopen that highway,” Estrada said.
