Watch: Burning Big Rig Dangles Off 10 Freeway

LOS ANGELES, CA — An overturned big rig caught fire and came to rest dangling over the edge of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, bringing traffic to a halt for hours.

The truck crashed on the rain-slicked eastbound side of the freeway near the Santa Fe Avenue exit just after 3:30 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. The truck forced the closure of several lanes of the freeway, backing up traffic for hours.

Firefighters were able to put out the flames in about 45 minutes, said Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department. The blaze threatened to spread to a nearby commercial building, but the structure was not damaged, she added.

Somehow, the driver managed to escape uninjured. The driver got scrambled out of the rig before firefighters arrived, Stewart said. A person who was not in the truck was taken to a hospital for treatment of an unspecified medical problem.

All eastbound lanes of the freeway were closed in the area until about 6 a.m., when the Nos. 1 and 2 lanes were reopened.

Crews worked throughout the day to pull the big rig off the road, and the remaining lanes were reopened shortly before 2 p.m., the CHP reported.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.