{"id":102492,"date":"2025-12-20T10:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T10:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/102492\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T10:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T10:37:14","slug":"big-rig-catches-fire-on-i-5-in-encinitas-partial-closure-causes-hours-of-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/102492\/","title":{"rendered":"Big rig catches fire on I-5 in Encinitas; partial closure causes hours of delays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Highway-Patrol-16-9.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766227034_683_Highway-Patrol-16-9.jpg\" alt=\"A California Highway Patrol cruiser\" class=\"wp-image-17521\" style=\"width:760px;height:auto\"  \/><\/a>A California Highway Patrol cruiser.  (File photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n<p>A predawn big rig fire on Interstate 5 near San Elijo State Beach led to traffic hassles along the regional route for more than 12 hours Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The tractor-trailer caught fire at about 12:30 a.m. Friday while traveling to the south through Encinitas, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chp.ca.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">California Highway Patrol<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>No injuries were reported, but the blaze forced protracted closures of two southbound lanes along with the southbound I-5 off-ramp to Birmingham Drive, the CHP reported.<\/p>\n<p>About eight hours after the fire broke out, a two-vehicle collision in the same area but on the northbound side of the interstate added to the commuter woes.<\/p>\n<p>The Nos. 3 and 4 lanes and the off-ramp at Birmingham Drive remained closed until further notice.<\/p>\n<p>Lane closures remained in effect in the vicinity throughout the morning and into the early afternoon as crews worked to get the damaged vehicles and crash debris off the roadway.<\/p>\n<p>The freeway was fully open again as of 1:30 p.m., the CHP said.<\/p>\n<p>The cause of the trailer fire and the two-vehicle crash was unclear. They came the same week that elected officials questioned how <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofsandiego.com\/politics\/2025\/12\/17\/lawmakers-letter-series-i-5-shutdowns\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">large-scale tie-ups on I-5<\/a> are addressed by Caltrans and law enforcement, particularly if the incidents lead to full freeway closures.<\/p>\n<p>Updated at 6:10 p.m. Dec. 19, 2025<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California Highway Patrol cruiser. (File photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego) A predawn big rig fire&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[852,2336,4601,3802,5151,55304,74,76,75,55305],"class_list":["post-102492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-chp","tag-closed","tag-encinitas","tag-fire","tag-interstate-5","tag-lanes","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-semi-truck-trailer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}