ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. -- Burnt vehicles and personal property littered Interstate 75 just west of Gainesville hours after a deadly crash.
Seven people were killed and at least eight others hurt, some with critical injuries, according to the Alachua County Fire Rescue. Among the dead are "multiple children," Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Patrick Riordan said.
The fiery crash happened around 3:42 p.m. Thursday, an FHP report says. Two semi-tractor trailers, a van and a midsize sedan were among the vehicles involved in the crash.
Troopers shut down the north and southbound lanes of I-75 for several miles in the area because of the amount of debris still on the highway. The northbound lanes reopened as of 8 p.m. Thursday. One southbound lane reopened as of 4:30 a.m. Friday, according to the FHP.
Emergency crews extinguished the fire and said they were treating the crash as a homicide investigation, but didn't say why. The fire was so intense that authorities said it damaged parts of the road.
A spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol told The Associated Press in a phone interview that their top priorities were to conduct a thorough investigation and to identify the deceased victims.
"There's going to be families that need to be notified that their loves ones have perished," Riordan said.
It's unclear whether the victims were killed in the wreck or whether they burned in the fire, which would make identification more difficult, he said.
Fire rescue says about 50 gallons of diesel fuel were spilled.
The fire since has been extinguished.
Donna Gruosso and her family were traveling home to their Tampa Bay-area home from Georgia when they came up to the crash. At first, they saw smoke. Then came the fire.
She recorded video and uploaded it to YouTube under her "ABC Mom" handle.
"... The fire started getting bigger and we heard explosions -- and we got really scared," Gruosso told 10News.
The inferno intensified as long as they stayed near the crash.
"When you're there watching it, I was naive enough to think that everybody's OK. You know, that just this one truck is involved. He might have crashed and out of his car and he was watching the fire, too," Gruosso said. "In my brain, those were my thoughts.
"That seems somewhat naive now knowing there were casualties. But that was my thought the moment. We couldn't see past this."
University of Florida Health activated its mass casualty plan not long after the crash. Six patients were sent to the hospital for treatment, it said.
Note: The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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