9pm: All southbound lanes of the M1 Princes Motorway will remain closed overnight at West Wollongong as an extensive and complex clean up and salvage operation continues after an earlier fuel tanker fire.
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Southbound light vehicles are still being diverted at the Princes Highway Figtree exit, and can rejoin the motorway at Five Islands Road.
Southbound heavy vehicles should continue to exit at Mount Ousley Road and can rejoin the motorway at Masters Road.
Motorists are advised to allow extra travel time and follow the directions of crews on site.
All northbound lanes of the M1 Princes Motorway are open but there is a reduced speed limit of 60km/h.
5pm: Fire and Rescue NSW has released dramatic drone pictures of the clean up effort.
4.15pm: The road closures around Wollongong have meant some residents rubbish has not been collected as normal.
Wollongong council’s waste contractor, Remondis, has advised its normal domestic waste collection was delayed in Balgownie, Tarrawanna, Fernhill and a small section of Corrimal.
These suburbs will have their bins collected from 6am on Saturday.
4pm: Some fire crews are leaving the scene and returning to their bases.
3.25pm: Northbound lanes of the M1 Princes Motorway have reopened at West Wollongong after a fuel tanker fire earlier today. Southbound lanes remain closed.
Northbound motorists are advised to slow down and allow extra travel time as a reduced speed limit of 60km/h is in place on the motorway.
Diversions are still in place for southbound motorists who need to travel through the area:
- Southbound light vehicles are being diverted at the Princes Highway (Figtree exit) and can rejoin the motorway from Five Islands Road.
- Southbound heavy vehicles should use Mount Ousley Road, the Princes Highway, Bourke Street, Corrimal Street, Springhill Road and Masters Road to rejoin the motorway.
- Southbound motorists can also use Bulli Pass instead.
Southbound lanes of the motorway will remain closed until tonight at the earliest.
A complex and lengthy clean up and salvage operation is taking place and road repairs will be needed before southbound lanes of the motorway can reopen, the Transport Management Centre said.
Traffic is still heavy on the motorway as well as on roads in surrounding areas including the Princes Highway and Corrimal Street.
2.35pm: Motorists are still advised to avoid the M1 Princes Motorway as it remains closed in both directions due to a tanker fire at Figtree.
Diversions are in place for motorists who need to travel through the area:
- Southbound light vehicles are now being diverted at the Princes Highway (Figtree exit) and can rejoin the motorway from FIve Islands Road.
- Southbound heavy vehicles should use Mount Ousley Road, the Princes Highway, Bourke Street, Corrimal Street, Springhill Road and Masters Road to rejoin the motorway.
- Southbound motorists can also use Bulli Pass instead.
- Northbound motorists are being diverted onto Five Islands Road and the Princes Highway to rejoin the motorway.
The motorway will remain closed until this evening at the earliest.
The fire has been extinguished but a complex and lengthy clean up and salvage operation and repairs to the road need to take place before the motorway can reopen, the Transport Management Centre said.
Traffic is still heavy on the motorway as well as roads in surrounding areas including the Princes Highway, Bourke Street and Corrimal Street.
2.25pm:
2.20pm:
1.25pm: To recap –
- A tanker truck transporting 35,000 litres of fuel erupted in fire about 9am.
- The truck driver escaped the blaze without injury.
- The M1 Princes Motorway at Figtree is closed in both directions. It is expected to remain closed until at least tonight.
- Detours are in place, but traffic is heavy on all roads around the incident.
- Bus services are being diverted around the site – services are delayed up to 25 minutes and are missing two stops.
- Some surrounding streets have been evacuated. Police have not indicated when they will be able to return.
- More than 80 firefighters on the scene.
1.23pm:
12.46pm: Bus services are being diverted around the site – services are delayed up to 25 minutes and are missing two stops.
Buses are being diverted via London Drive, Yellagong Street, Mt Keira Road and Crown Street.
12.39pm: Wollongong Police acting superindendent Kevin McNeil said roads could remain closed for some time yet.
“It’s the case that the road could be closed for a number of hours and it could well and truly go on into the evening,” he said.
“The traffic is being monitored. It is moving; it is slow. Please, if you don’t have to travel south please don’t do so – there are significant delays.”
Traffic is being monitored on the livetraffic and Mercury sites.
Supt McNeil said it was unclear when evacuated residents would be able to return to their homes.
Evacuations took place on Friday morning, at a time of “great concern” for emergency services.
“There was concern due to the heavy amount of smoke and the possibility of further fires or explosions,” he said.
"It was a great concern at the time, however the firefighting and emergency services attended immediately and got control of the situation.”
11.57am: Fire and Rescue NSW is reporting that “crews have achieved significant fire knockdown on this tanker fire”.
Hazmat crews are still monitoring fuel runoff.
11.26am: The M1 Princes Motorway is expected to be closed through the afternoon peak hour and into the evening.
11.23am: There are reports that another compartment in the tanker has ruptured. Fire crews are placing a blanket of foam over the burning fire and pouring water on the remaining compartments to keep them cool.
11.20am: Fire and Rescue NSW duty commander Bruce Fitzpatrick said there was still a risk the tanker could explode, but a focus of crews on the scene is to reduce that risk.
“A petrol tanker is compartmentalised, it’s not one big tanker of 3600 litres, it’s eight tanks of about 600 litres each,” Duty Commander Fitzpatrick said.
“So it’s burning down one tank at a time. So the risk of what’s known as a BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor gas explosion) .. the risk is still there but it’s being reduced because the product is venting and it is on fire.”
11.10am: There are more than 80 firefighters on the scene working on the fire.
11.05am: Booms have been set up around the drains in the location of the fire to stop fuel and fire-fighting foam from entering the waterways.
11am: The fire from the tanker has spread to dense scrub behind homes at McAndrew Crescent in Mangerton, just 20 metres from the truck.
Two fire trucks have been send to fight the fire.
10.55am: According to Fire and Rescue NSW the fuel tanker has compartments inside, separating the fuel.
Part of the firefighters efforts are being directed at keeping the rear compartments cool to try and avoid the fire from spreading to them.
10.46am: A Sutherland Rural Fire Service bulk water carrier is stuck in gridlocked traffic on Mt Ousley Road near the New Mt Pleasant Road overpass.
They have requested a police escort to get to the scene of the tanker fire.
10.37am: Police have confirmed that the 44-year-old male driver of the Metro Petroleum tanker escaped injury.
Police said the fire started after the driver pulled the tanker to the side of the road on the M1 motorway around 8.40am.
10.35am: A Traffic Management Centre spokesman said the incident “will be going for some hours” before traffic is back to normal.
“The fire is one thing, removing the truck is one thing and then repairing the melted road is another thing,” the spokesman said.
“This is something that’s going to be going for some time.”
10.26am: The Traffic Management Centre advises people to avoid all non-essential travel today.
A spokesman said the detour routes are much smaller than the M1 motorway and are already becoming heavily congested.
10.24am: Northbound M1 traffic trapped beyond the set detours has been directed to do u-turns on the M1 and cross over to the southbound lanes.
10.14am: The Princes Highway northbound is closed northbound at London Drive, roughly 500 metres from the tanker fire.
10.10am: The Rural Fire Service is assisting with water supply ans has 12 tankers and three bulk water carriers on site.
Firefighters are keeping about 50 metres clear of the truck.
10.01am: Fire crews are training water on the truck from all available angles, including from above,using a vantage point off Geards Place.
The fire appears to have started towards the front end of the truck and has moved along the outside of the body. As of 15 minutes ago it had reached halfway along the tanker.
10am: Unconfirmed reports from the scene suggest the fire still has more than 20,000 litres of fuel to burn through.
9.59am: Southbound along the Princes Highway is congested back to the Rosemont Avenue intersection.
9.54am: The Princes Highway leading into the city is also choked with traffic stretching as far back as the Cordeaux Road intersection.
9.52am: Southbound M1 motorway traffic is banked back to the Memorial Drive intersection.
The southbound diversion is via old Mt Ousley Road and traffic is heavy as far back as the New Mt Pleasant Road overpass.
9.50am: The tanker fire has caused extensive traffic delays. It is understood northbound traffic on the M1 between the fire scene and Five Islands Road is at a standstill.
Northbound traffic on the southbound side of Five Islands Road is heavy but is steadily being diverted off the motorway.
9.45am: There are reports that a two-kilometre exclusion zone has been placed around the fire scene
9.43am: A motorist driving nearby when the tanker caught alight saw a fireball shoot into the sky.
“I was driving along Robsons Rd when I saw a mass of black smoke in the blue sky,” he said.
“It was obvious whatever it was had only just happened, something had caught fire. I kept driving towards the smoke, then the next thing I saw this massive fireball and heard a huge bang.”
“I thought ‘jeez, a tanker or something is exploding’. It was massive.”
9.30am: Homes in Geards Place on the south side of the Princes Highway are being evacuated, with residents removed under police instruction.
9.27am: Police have cleared onlookers from the Princes Highway overpass near the location of the tanker fire.
9.26am: Ambulance media reports no injuries from the truck fire. There are two ambulances on standby at the scene.
9.25am: The driver of the truck was able to get out before the fire really took hold. He suffered nothing more than singed hairs on his arm.
9.15am: Northbound traffic is being diverted onto Masters Road while southbound traffic is being diverted via the Princes Highway onto Five Islands Road to return to the motorway
9.11am: It is understood explosions can still be heard coming from the tanker.
9.09am: The Princes Highway at Figtree is also now closed in both directions.
9.04am: Emergency services are looking to close the motorway soutbound from the old Mt Ousley Road exit.
9.01am: The truck was carrying 35,000 litres of unleaded and E10 when it caught alight.
8.55am: Three lanes of the M1 Princes Motorway at Figtree are blocked by a tanker truck on fire.
Fire crews are responding to the incident which is in the vicinity of the Princes Highway overpass near the Illawarra Grammar School.
The 36,000 tanker truck is well alight and the M1 motorway is closed in both directions.
All three southbound lanes are blocked and fire crews are stuck in the traffic.