‘Delay your trips:’ Semi fire, pursuit, 5-car crash closes northbound I-5 in Lakewood

All lanes of northbound Interstate 5 in Lakewood closed early Monday after the driver in a high-speed pursuit struck five vehicles stopped at the scene of a semi-truck fire.

“There are no good alt routes,” the Washington Department of Transportation wrote on Twitter. “Delay your trips if possible.”

By 9 a.m., two lanes were open and traffic was starting to move.

Backups extended more than 10 miles for most of the day.

The incident started at about 1 a.m. when a Cheesecake Factory big rig caught fire alongside I-5 near Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s main gate.

Emergency crews responded and were working on putting out the blaze and cleaning up the scene when a high-speed pursuit started in Tumwater.

Police pulled over a Chevy Tahoe, but when the officer walked back to the patrol car, the SUV driver took off.

Thurston County sheriff’s deputies began a pursuit after the SUV sped by them on I-5. When dispatchers notified deputies about slowed traffic due to the big rig fire, they stopped pursuing the suspect.

The suspect, however, continued at high speed and entered the scene about 3:50 a.m., striking a patrol car, two fire trucks, a WSDOT Incident Response vehicle and a civilian’s car, trooper Ryan Burke said.

A man, woman and dog inside the Tahoe were injured.

The man and woman were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. One of them suffered serious injuries, but it was not immediately clear which one.

Although the crash investigation was complete by late morning, cleanup took much longer.

Two tow trucks hauled away some of the damaged vehicles and wreckage, but debris still littered the lanes.

By 12:30 p.m., WSDOT warned, “Backups on NB I-5 are not improving. We are at 13 miles from the collision scene.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 7:55 AM.