Senora Freeway Bridge Closed After Fireworks Trailer Ignites in Multi-Vehicle Pileup

BLAINE COUNTY — The Senora Freeway bridge will remain closed for the foreseeable future after a chain-reaction crash involving a fully loaded Boom Daddy's Fireworks trailer and a logging trailer left the span with what engineers are calling "extensive structural damage," authorities said Sunday.

According to witnesses and preliminary reports, the pileup began when a passenger vehicle traveling in evening traffic lost control and struck both a logging truck's trailer and the adjacent Boom Daddy's Fireworks trailer in quick succession. The impact sheared the logging trailer's rear coupling, sending dozens of logs spilling across all four lanes, while the force of the collision pushed the tractor-trailer itself over the edge of the bridge. The truck's cab and a portion of its trailer went over the guardrail and fell to the terrain below, though the driver reportedly managed to escape the cab before it went over. At least six additional vehicles collided with the resulting debris field or with one another in the seconds that followed.

The Boom Daddy's trailer, struck in the same initial collision, was pushed into the wreckage and caught fire almost immediately. Within minutes, the fire reached the trailer's cargo, and the resulting chain ignition sent fireworks launching in multiple directions across the crash site. Witnesses described mortar shells and roman candles arcing over the wreck, some striking already-damaged vehicles and setting off secondary fires, while others detonated against the bridge's support structure and guardrails.

"I thought we were being shot at," said one commuter who asked not to be identified. "Then I realized it was Boom Daddy's. Should've known."

Fire crews quickly responded but were initially unable to approach the fireworks trailer directly due to continued ignition of undetonated stock, and instead worked to contain spot fires among the scattered logs and disabled vehicles until the trailer's contents were fully spent. A separate response was mounted for the logging truck's cab and trailer section that went over the edge

Multiple injuries were reported among occupants of the involved vehicles, ranging from impact trauma to burns.

Structural engineers with the San Andreas Department of Transportation inspected the bridge deck and support columns confirmed that repeated close-range firework detonations, combined with prolonged direct flame exposure from the burning trailer and the impact damage from the tractor-trailer going over the barrier, caused significant damage to the roadway surface, guardrail structure, and at least one support column. Officials say the bridge will remain closed to all traffic while a full engineering assessment is conducted.

Boom Daddy's Fireworks issued a brief statement expressing sympathy for those injured and confirming that the company is "conducting a full internal review" of its trailer transport and load securement procedures, its second such review this year. The statement went on to note that Boom Daddy's remains "fully committed to responsible pyrotechnic logistics" and that all products sold at its roadside locations are "at least partially compliant" with applicable state fire codes.

The company did not directly address questions regarding whether the trailer's cargo exceeded standard consumer-grade classification, though it did clarify that its inventory is "rated for personal, non-commercial, non-highway-adjacent use," a distinction several witnesses found difficult to reconcile with what they described as roughly four uninterrupted minutes of aerial mortar fire over an active freeway.