Fiery Christmas Eve crash shuts down I-95 north in Palm Coast for the day

An explosive Christmas Eve accident that left a Jacksonville truck driver dead also detoured thousands of holiday-bound motorists in and around Palm Coast after a chunk of Interstate 95 northbound was damaged by the flames, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
As work crews cleaned up the charred wreckage of the gasoline tanker that burned after the pre-dawn impact, 41-year-old Christopher James McEuen’s former wife grieved for a man she called an “amazing person.”
McEuen had been driving for Florida Rock and Tank Lines of Jacksonville for the past few years, according to Christina McEuen. She learned of his death from family.
“I am in shock and I am so sad,” she said. “I just talked to him last night and he said ‘I love you’ when he hung up and I can’t believe that he is gone. In bad moments he always had a joke to come up with. ... He was just the best friend anybody could ever want.”
Travelers headed for Christmas with friends and family had to slowly thread their way up U.S. 1 in Bunnell and past Palm Coast to get around the accident scene on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
“It is quite a mess with the increased traffic,” Highway Patrol Sgt. Dylan Bryan said. “... We are directing traffic to U.S. 1 north and I-95 at the next exit. This has increased the flow on the smaller roads and it has caused a delay with the amount of traffic, but it is moving.”
The accident occurred about 4:15 a.m. at mile marker 290 when the loaded fuel truck tried to change lanes behind an unloaded tractor-trailer truck, Bryan said. Moving from the right to center lane, the tanker hit the left rear of the other truck, Bryan said.
“This caused the tanker to lose control and overturn and it ignited, fully engulfing that vehicle,” Bryan said.
The other driver has been identified as 33-year-old St. Clair Agenord of Winter Haven, according to the Highway Patrol. Uninjured in the accident, he was charged on a warrant for child support out of Alachua County, Bryan said.
Little was left of the tanker — just pieces of steel with the trailer frame. The tires were completely burned away. The fire was extinguished by about 6:15 a.m.
The amount of heavy holiday traffic heading up the highway forced the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and Highway Patrol to move the detours south to U.S. 1 and Florida 100, Bryan said. Crews had to remove the asphalt that was damaged and begin the emergency repair process.
“Due to the extreme heat from the fire, it damaged the roadway beyond the point where it was safe to operate vehicles,” Bryan said.
Initial estimates were that repairs wouldn’t be done until early Christmas Day, but that was revised to about 6 p.m. Christmas Eve once work began, according to the Florida Department of Transportation. Palm Coast re-timed traffic lights along Florida 100 to ease congestion due to the detour, while the Highway Patrol assigned a trooper at Florida 100 and U.S. 1 to control that signal and keep traffic moving.
Christina McEuen said her former husband, an Akron native, took the job with the Jacksonville-based company so he could be closer to his three boys and two girls ages 9 to 23. While the two separated in 2008, she said they had been “best friends” for the past three years.
“He would help anyone if he could, whether he knew them or not,” she said. “He loved his children and he was the greatest dad and was always there for them. He was kind of like an angel put on earth.