City officials said in a statement that no injuries were reported.
Smoke billowed from the rubble of the collapsed section of the northbound lanes of I-95, the main north-south interstate on the East Coast, running from Miami in the south north through Washington and New York before ending at the Canadian border in the state of Maine.
Video showed emergency vehicles and workers gathered in the vicinity of the huge chunk of the charred, collapsed overpass. Traffic in both directions of the eight-lane highway was halted due to concerns about the structural integrity of the remaining southbound lanes.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Sunday said it would send a team to investigate what it called a petroleum tanker truck fire and the collapse of the overpass.
US president Joe Biden was briefed on the collapse and the White House has offered assistance to state and local officials, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said the closure of I-95 will have “significant impacts” on the region and the city of Philadelphia. Buttigieg said on Twitter that he was coordinating with regional leaders for recovery and rebuilding efforts.
This stretch of the I-95 corridor sits in the dense northeast section of Philadelphia and connects the city to its northern suburbs, like Bucks County.
On a Sunday in the summer, it is routinely used by beachgoers coming home from the Jersey Shore. During the week, it is crowded with commuters and vehicles travelling to Boston, Baltimore and Washington.
Firefighters battled a large fire coming from a vehicle, Philadelphia Fire Battalion chief Derek Bowmer told reporters.
“We tried to extinguish the fire. … We did upgrade it to a hazmat box because we got reports that it could have been a tanker or something like that,” he said.
Crews will be at work for “a while,” Bowmer added, trying to determine if fuel or gas lines might have been compromised by the accident.
Dominick Mireles, the director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management, said officials were concerned about the accident’s potential impact on the environment due to the proximity to the Delaware River.
“Today is going to be a long day,” he said, adding that recovery efforts are likely to take time.
Officials said travellers should expect delays and encouraged them to plan alternate travel routes for their commute and use public transportation.