EDITORIAL: The good news from mysterious I-85 fire: No fatalities

Possibly the most amazing — and positive — aspect of the enormous fire on Interstate Highway 85 in Atlanta Thursday evening is there were no deaths.

Traffic in the badly congested state capital, which is tough to deal with under ideal conditions, certainly will be much worse for the foreseeable future, but at least this blaze, the origin of which was still undetermined at the time of this writing, didn’t claim any lives.

Given the heavy usage of that section of I-85, there easily could have been multiple fatalities. That there were none is something for which we, as a state, should be thankful.

Reports say that the event created a 40-foot-high wall of fire after starting at an I-85 overpass near where the state stores construction materials, which around 7 p.m. Thursday caused an elevated span of the highway to collapse. Fortunately, firefighters who were in the danger zone battling the blaze realized the immediate risk and moved away before the collapse.

Some motorists managed to get through the smoke-laden area early in the fire, but authorities were soon rerouting traffic around the area that officials say has a daily count exceeding 200,000 vehicles a day. Reports said traffic jams were at least five miles long Tuesday night, and many motorists spent hours trying to navigate to their destinations via alternate routes.

Three sections for northbound traffic on I-85 will have to be replaced, as will three sections for southbound traffic, which means the I-285 bypass and major Atlanta streets are having to pick up the slack at a time of year when traffic gets heavier from vacationers and spring-breakers.

Authorities say they don’t believe terrorism was involved in the starting of the blaze, which is reassuring. But there is still a lot of work to be done to determine the cause, which some officials have speculated involved ignited PVC material stored near the site. If that’s the case, the mystery is how the fire started and why the normally stable material continued burning. Officials also have to determine health risks by testing air and water samples taken.

This very likely will go down as one of the state’s most bewildering disasters, and it’s one that those who travel in the Atlanta area will have to deal with for an undetermined amount of time that will be measured in months.

Quick and decisive action by traffic and public safety officials helped mitigate the danger of the event, and we tip our hats to the brave men and women who responded. Hopefully, the investigation will quickly determine what caused it so that steps can be taken to prevent this type of disaster from happening again.