White Van Fire Closes Westbound I-580 on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge; No Injuries
A white Ford Transit caught fire about 7:25 a.m. Thursday just east of the midspan. Four people got out and were unhurt. All westbound lanes were closed; the left lane reopened at 8:46 a.m. while the right remained closed.
By the Bay Area Brief staff · Edited by Seamus McKenna · · 3 min read
Palm trees and sunshine at Jack London Square in Oakland. Photo: Niranjan Arminius / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped, resized and color-graded). Archive photo of the area; not a photo of the events in this story.
A white Ford Transit van caught fire on westbound Interstate 580 just east of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge midspan about 7:25 a.m. Thursday, closing all westbound lanes, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Four people got out of the van. There were no injuries. A SigAlert was issued at 7:35 a.m., and all westbound lanes were closed. Crews were on scene about 7:46 or 7:47 a.m., and the fire was out by 7:58 a.m. At 8:46 a.m., the left westbound lane had reopened, while the right lane remained closed. The backup stretched from Marina Bay through Point Richmond, the Chronicle reported.
Sources
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The bike and pedestrian path will close from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. Eastbound lanes stay open. The span is the first of the region’s seven state-owned bridges to convert all lanes to open-road tolling.
The California Highway Patrol said the vehicle flipped several times around 6:40 p.m. Wednesday at Harbour Way, with no other vehicles involved. The driver had minor injuries, and the closure caused delays toward the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
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Emilson Garcia-Ponce, who was homeless and asleep on the driveway of Richmond Fire Station 67 when a fire truck rolled over him in September 2025, is suing the city and the driver, saying the crew failed to check for obstructions in time. Richmond's lawyers say he wasn't visible and was intoxicated.
