The Buckhorn Grade portion of Highway 299 west of Redding was completely blocked for a couple of hours Thursday afternoon from a major injury head-on collision. At around 2:30PM a Chevy pickup and a Ford pickup, one of them hauling a camp trailer, crashed about a mile-and-half from the summit. A fire began raging in the engine compartment of the Chevy, and the driver was stuck in the cab. Many people rushed to help and one of them had a sledge hammer, which he used to free the trapped driver. The truck continued burning for at least 20 minutes as emergency responders had difficulty reaching the scene through the backed-up traffic, and had to drive in the opposing lane to get there. The CHP ended up closing the highway at the bottom of the hill, turning westbound drivers back while the wrecked and burned vehicles were cleared from the scene. Two-way travel was finally restored at 4:33PM.
-Steve Gibson