At least 1 dead, 22 injured in fiery pileup in Michigan

GALESBURG, Mich. — Interstate 94 in both directions here was closed Friday because of a fiery pileup involving nearly 200 vehicles, authorities said.

At least one person, Jean Larocque, 57, a truck driver from Saint-Chrysostome, Québec in Canada, died in the series of crashes a little after 9:30 a.m. ET, Michigan State Police said. At least 22 others were injured.

"As you can imagine, it's not easy to count vehicles as they pile up," Michigan State Police Lt. Rick Pazder said. Officials are pegging the latest number at 193.

Officials said they don't expect the four miles of I-94, a major east-west artery across the southern part of Michigan, to open until after midnight Friday.

About 10 semi-trailer trucks and some cars were involved in the first accident at mile marker 90 in the eastbound lanes on the snow-covered interstate in southwest Michigan between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, about 125 miles west of Detroit. As rescuers arrived, two firefighters were injured when a load of fireworks exploded on one of the wrecked trucks, which caught fire; a wrecker driver also was injured.

About a dozen vehicles that had crashed in the eastbound lanes — including the truck with fireworks and one carrying 44,000 pounds of formic acid, used in processing textiles and leather — burned for hours, authorities said.

The scene was a "very chaotic situation," State Police Inspector Tracey McAndrew said.

"I jumped out, and I ran away from it because I saw all the trucks coming and they couldn't stop," said Randall Kern, who was behind the truck with the fireworks. "I jumped out and ran up through the trees to get away."

Buses were dispatched to carry uninjured crash victims from the scene, where it was 12 degrees Friday morning. People who live within 3 miles of the crash site were asked to stay inside for several hours because of the smoke from hazardous material in the air.

Formic acid can cause irritation of the eyes, skin, throat and nasal passages and also can result in skin burns, difficulty breathing and nausea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of the 23 injured in the pileup, one was in serious condition at 1 p.m. Friday. Others were in good condition or had minor injuries at three area hospitals.

Initially, state police said 50 to 70 vehicles were involved in the crashes but revised the number upward. Most were in the westbound lanes.

At about 9 p.m. wreckers continued to remove damaged vehicles from the roadway, so the number of vehicles involved could increase, Pazder said.

Snowfall reports in the region indicate that more than half foot of snow fell from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service. High winds made road conditions worse; an overnight wind gust of 33 mph was reported at Battle Creek's airport.

Authorities are blaming snow, wind and poor visibility as contributors to the crashes.

Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller it was not clear whether westbound drivers also were affected by blowing snow or saw the accident across the median.

"It was maybe a whiteout, or they were slowing down to see if anything was coming over the median," he said.

The cause of the crashes remain under investigation, Pazder said.

In Lansing to the north, I-496 was closed briefly because of icy conditions, and weather-related crashes also closed major roads in other areas of the state.

Contributing: WZZM-TV, Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Mich.; The Associated Press