Fish Truck Spills 1,600 Pounds of Live Bass

It wasn’t a plague of frogs, but it was close. About 1,600 pounds of live bass flopped onto a roadway in Irvine early Thursday after a transport truck overturned.

No humans were injured in the three-car wreck, which involved a box truck carrying saltwater tanks of live fish to market. However, the fish didn’t fare so well.

“All the fish died at the scene,” said Irvine Police Sgt. Bill Russell.

The cause of the crash was under investigation, but preliminary evidence indicated it happened after someone ran a red light, said Russell.

The accident occurred at Walnut and Yale avenues just after 9 a.m. The road remained closed until about 1 p.m. as Hazmat crews dealt with a diesel leak and liquid oxygen tanks that spilled, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Marc Stone.

The liquid oxygen could have posed a lethal fire threat if the wreck caught fire, said Stone.

“It happened right in front of our fire station – Station 26,” said Stone. “The firefighters were in the station when they heard a loud crash.”

They ran outside to find the truck flipped over, said Stone. About $13,000 in live fish spilled out of their tanks when the truck overturned, he said.

“When [firefighters] opened the truck, the fish fell out the back,” Stone said.