Officials hope to have northbound 110 Freeway in San Pedro open Wednesday morning following tunnel fire cleanup

Fire crews have a complex operation in place to not only extinguish a tunnel fire that erupted under the 110 Freeway in San Pedro last night, but also to remove debris and determine the safety of the roadway before reopening it to commuters.

"Our highest priority is to get that freeway back open." Los Angeles Fire Department Assistant Chief Carlos Calvillo said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference, adding that the goal is to have it open by Wednesday morning. Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker, whose district includes San Pedro, said at best, only one or two of the northbound lanes of the freeway will likely be open tomorrow morning.  

According to Caltrans, the blaze began around 9 p.m. Monday in a culvert, defined as a "tunnel-like structure under the freeway that helps manage drainage," near the Channel Street on-ramp. Crews contained the fire, but "burning construction timber and other materials that cannot be easily moved will require ongoing suppression,"  McOsker said Tuesday morning.

The fire, said to be at the site of a homeless encampment, initially required a complete closure of the commuter freeway, but the southbound lanes opened up by 9 a.m. after crews made progress.

Calvillo said as of Tuesday afternoon, that the "whole tunnel is submerged with water right now. " He explained the complexities in fighting the blaze, as the smoke building up inside the tunnel had one way out, and it's also the only way fire crews could get in.

He said crews diked the entire area with plastic and filled the tunnel with roughly 150,000 gallons of water, mixed with some foam.

"Because the tunnel is filled with water, we're not able to actually get the freeway open back up the way we want to," Calvillo said. Heavy equipment will be used overnight to vacuum the water out of the tunnel, and then that water will have to be offloaded for proper disposal.

The tunnel's structural integrity will be evaluated once crews can safely get inside. "It's not going to be easy. After we dewater it, there is a lot of debris in there, a lot of debris, and really kind of a filthy, messy debris. So we gotta kind of work through that," Calvillo said. 

It is still unknown if there are any victims inside the tunnel. McOsker noted that it is not a tunnel that runs entirely across under the freeway, but rather "appears to be a very old tunnel that predates, or dates to the construction of, the original construction of the freeway." He said it's a little unclear which agency is responsible for the tunnel.

"We will make sure that we have a full evaluation of whose tunnel that is, and how it can be secured in the future," he said, at the same time calling for a full evaluation of Caltrans properties. 

"This is the second time this has happened on this freeway in three months," McOsker added. 

Los Angeles firefighters said that there have been reports of seven rubbish fires at the location since April 22, 2026. 

The 110 Freeway northbound lane closures are between Harry Bridges Boulevard and Channel Street.