El Paso, TX : Two people killed and five others injured in a fiery multi-vehicle accident on Interstate 10 in West El Paso on Monday evening, May 23, 2016

Two people were killed and five others were hospitalized in a fiery multi-vehicle accident Monday evening that shut down Interstate 10 in West El Paso, police said.

The accident occurred during the evening rush hour at about 6 p.m. on I-10 East near Sunland Park Drive, police said.

Police officials did not release details on the accident, which was still under investigation late Monday night by the police Special Traffic Investigations Unit.

It appeared the collision occurred on the eastbound lanes of I-10 with a gray vehicle rolling and ending up on its roof in the westbound lanes. Another vehicle was on its roof in the eastbound lanes.

The crash appeared to also involve a semi-truck and a vehicle that both caught fire and a truck and a small car.

El Paso Fire Department spokesman Carlos Briano said that 36 firefighters responded to the scene to fight the vehicle fires and treat patients.

"They (firefighters) saw an 18-wheeler engulfed with another vehicle underneath it," Briano said. It took firefighters about an hour to get the fire from the burning vehicles under control.

Black smoke from the collision could be seen miles away.

Two people were killed and five people were taken to hospitals with injuries described by police as not being life threatening, police said via Twitter.

A police spokesman said late Monday that he didn't have information on the people killed and injured in the accident.

Briano said that paramedics treated a total of eight people, including six that were taken by ambulance to hospitals and two people treated at the scene.

The collision shut down I-10 in both directions.

The Texas Department of Transportation had eastbound traffic detoured off the freeway at the Mesa Street exit and westbound traffic was detoured off the highway at the Sunland Park Drive exit.

The freeway remained closed more than four hours after the accident.

Source :
2 dead in I-10 crash in West El Paso