Cincinnati bridge suffers 'significant damage' after fire spreads from riverfront park below

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A bridge connection Cincinnati to Newport, Kentucky, caught fire early Friday morning from a fire that officials believe started in the park below, WCPO reported.

All lanes of Interstate 471 were closed by 4 a.m., when a vehicle fire near the bridge on the Ohio side spread to Sawyer Point Park — catching a playset on fire — and then spread above to the deck of the yellow Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, commonly referred to as the Big Mac Bridge.

Fire crews said the park underneath was engulfed in flames when they arrived, and the flames were reaching up over the bridge and damaging it.

"When we got down here, the park underneath the bridge was completely engulfed," Cincinnati Police Lt. Patrick Caton said Friday morning, per WCPO. "Flames were reaching up over the front of the park, up over the bridge and it was, it was actually doing damage to the bridge."

The Ohio Department of Transportation said the bridge suffered "significant damage." ODOT spokesperson Matt Bruning said a preliminary observation shows most of the damage is on the southbound side of the highway, where at least three steel beams need to be replaced and a new bridge deck poured.

Bruning said the hope is to inspect the less-damaged northbound side first in hopes its lane will be able to reopen sooner. He wouldn't give a timeline for when the repairs would be completed but said "it will not be days."

The fire was contained, though flames could still be seen in the park around 8:15 a.m. No one was hurt.

There is no timeline for the bridge to reopen, and, as of 11 a.m., I-471 North traffic remained closed all the way back to Interstate 275 in Campbell County.

This story will be updated.

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