Early Tuesday morning, a solo vehicle crash and fire on Interstate 5 southbound just north of State Route 198 near Coalinga left one person dead.
According to California Highway Patrol dispatch logs, the incident was reported at 2:21 a.m. as a vehicle on fire in the center divider. The reporting party said the vehicle appeared to have front-end and rear-end damage and advised that two occupants were out of the vehicle and walking around. The call was transferred to Cal Fire, which arrived on scene. The incident was initially classified as a car fire but was changed to a fatality at 6:01 a.m. The coroner arrived on scene, and a tow truck was requested for the completely burned vehicle.
CHP units were assigned at 2:23 a.m. and arrived on scene between 2:37 a.m. and 2:45 a.m. The vehicle was described as fully engulfed in flames and located southbound just south of State Route 145. The vehicle was a 2004 GMC Yukon, blue in color, with the front license plate no longer attached.
Units cleared the scene between 5:08 a.m. and 6:01 a.m.
The identity of the deceased was not immediately available, and the cause of the crash was not reported in the logs.
The CHP recorded the crash at GPS coordinates: 36.257907 -120.246414
Sources:
– CHP CAD incident viewer: https://cad.chp.ca.gov/
