First, the bad news: several lanes of Interstate 95, the key highway spanning from Miami to Maine, collapsed after a tanker fire broke out underneath an overpass in Philadelphia.
While the northbound side has collapsed, the southbound side is not structurally sound to carry any traffic. Incredibly, no injuries were reported.
The segment carries some 160,000 vehicles per day and threatens to snarl traffic, though drivers between Delaware and New York City can use the New Jersey Turnpike. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said a complete rebuild will take a number of months.
But the good news is that the incident has created a media legend. The local Fox affiliate interviewed a man who said, multiple times, that he was passed out at the time of the incident, but awoke to seeing smoke and police cars nearby.
Twitter users took note of the strong Northeast Philadelphia dialect, and expressed surprise he didn’t add a “Go Birds” at the end.
Philadelphia-area local news broadcasts have a knack for creating mini celebrities. There was the local hero, who helped catch children thrown from a window during a fire, who used the interview to criticize then Eagles wide receiver Nelson Agholor. “My man just started throwing babies out the window, and we was catching them, unlike Agholor.” A good sport, Agholor invited him to a game.
Another legendary interview after a Phillies game featured a man saying how “stoked” he was. “We’re talkin’ about the Fightins here. The Fightins. Said? Said.”
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