A vehicle overturned and caught fire on southbound Interstate 5 just north of State Route 198 near Coalinga early Tuesday morning, leaving one person dead.
According to California Highway Patrol dispatch logs, the incident was first reported at 2:21 a.m. as a car fire, with the reporting party stating two occupants had exited the vehicle and were walking around. Logs show the vehicle was overturned in the center divider with front- and rear-end damage and became fully engulfed in flames. The classification was later changed to a fatality at 6:01 a.m., with officers describing it as a solo-vehicle incident resulting in a death. The coroner arrived on scene at 4:57 a.m., and no ambulance requests or CPR efforts were noted in the logs.
Officers arrived at the scene around 2:37 a.m., with the coroner requesting a tow truck for the completely burned vehicle at 4:57 a.m. The vehicle was described as a blue 2004 GMC Yukon with only the front license plate remaining, which was no longer attached. The tow truck was notified at 4:58 a.m.
The incident was transferred to Cal Fire at 2:24 a.m. for the vehicle fire. Units cleared the scene between 5:08 a.m. and 6:01 a.m.
The identities of those involved and the cause of the crash were not immediately available.
The CHP recorded the crash at GPS coordinates: 36.257907 -120.246414
Sources:
– CHP CAD incident viewer: https://cad.chp.ca.gov/
