Hot Hot Heat

Top of Mind

The I-270 Inferno: Brought to You by One Black Pickup and 8,500 Gallons of Regret

If you were anywhere near the Northeast Side of Columbus on June 22, you probably saw it—or at least smelled it. Around 1:39 p.m., a black pickup truck attempted what we can only assume was an unlicensed Fast & Furious audition and slammed into a fuel tanker on the ramp from I-270 South to State Route 161 East. The result? A full-blown gasoline fireball that shut down I-270 in both directions for hours and sent plumes of smoke visible for miles. Casual Sunday stuff.

The tanker, hauling 8,500 gallons of fuel, flipped and ignited on impact. The driver was thankfully taken to Riverside in stable condition. The driver of the black pickup, however, skipped the post-crash meet-and-greet and instead fled the scene like a bad date, heading east on 161. If you’ve seen a suspiciously dented black pickup limping around town, CPD would love a call.

The Ohio EPA may still have to get involved due to the scale of the spill and burn. 

Traffic didn’t reopen until 5:35 a.m. the next day, marking one of the more dramatic shut-it-downs in recent Columbus history. And while the tanker driver was thankfully okay, the black pickup and its mystery driver remain at large.

So if you happen to spot a suspiciously singed truck limping east with a guilty conscience and a fresh coat of denial, Columbus police would love to hear from you.

Until then, we’ll be over here adding “tanker explosion” to the ever-growing list of reasons why you were late to work, behind “car into building #37” and “Ohio weather.”

Just another week in Central Ohio. Where the roads are hot, the tempers are hotter, and the traffic updates read like action movie scripts.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: What was the first U.S. TV show to feature an openly gay lead character?

A) Will and Grace
B) Friends
C) Ellen
D) The O.C.

Roll Up, PrEP Up

This June 27, the South Side’s Southbend Tavern is serving up more than just drinks. From 6 to 8 p.m., you can swing by for a free HIV/STI test, access PrEP resources, snag a bite, and catch a drag show, all courtesy of Equitas Health and Brothers in Unity, who are rolling in with their MOVe mobile unit for National HIV Testing Day.

It’s part celebration, part public health, and all about community.

Brothers in Unity was built to support same-gender loving men of color in Columbus, affirming their experiences while also offering real tools to protect their health. Add Equitas Health, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ health organization, and you’ve got more than just a pop-up event. You’ve got a living legacy.

Back in the ‘80s, this all started with friends around kitchen tables trying to care for one another when nobody else would. That spirit is still here, just now it comes with free food, safer sex kits, and a lip-sync or two.

So if you’ve got 15 minutes, you’ve got time to get tested. No shame, no pressure, just community care that looks good under a disco ball.

📍 Southbend Tavern
126 E. Moler St., Columbus
🕕 Thursday, June 27 | 6–8 p.m.

Tests are free. Support is real. And yes, the queens will be fierce.

Too Hot to Handle

Welcome to the surface of the sun, also known as Central Ohio. A brutal heat dome has parked itself over the Midwest, trapping hot air like a Tupperware lid on bad leftovers, except this time, the leftovers are us.

An extreme heat advisory is in effect from noon on June 22 through 8 p.m. June 24, but don’t expect things to cool down after that. Forecasts show highs in the mid to upper 90s lasting through the week, with heat index values peaking around 104 degrees. Even nights won’t help; low temps are barely dipping below 75, which means unless you live in a basement or a meat locker, good luck sleeping.

So, what is a heat dome? According to NOAA, it’s a slow-moving system of high pressure that squats over an area and refuses to leave, rerouting the jet stream and trapping hot air underneath. It’s basically weather squatting, except with more sweat and less legal recourse.

To help avoid spontaneous combustion, the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department is opening five community cooling centers and offering free admission to all city pools from 1–8 p.m. starting June 24. Spray grounds at Barnett, Linden, and Scioto Southland will also be running from noon–8 p.m., and all 23 Columbus Public Library branches will be open with their best feature: functioning air conditioning.

Cooling Centers:

• Dodge Community Center (Sullivant Ave.)
  

• Driving Park Community Center (Rhoads Ave.)
  

• Glenwood Community Center (Fairmont Ave.)
  

• Linden Community Center (Briarwood Ave.)
  

• Marion Franklin Community Center (Lockbourne Rd.)
  

The CDC recommends staying indoors, wearing loose-fitting clothes, and drinking more water than you think is reasonable. Limit caffeine and alcohol, skip the 2 p.m. jog, and check on anyone who might be more vulnerable, especially the elderly, children, and anyone still trying to mow their lawn this week.

Common heat illness symptoms include heavy sweating, dizziness, nausea, confusion, and the unsettling realization that your sidewalk is warm enough to fry an egg.

Yes, there’s a slight chance of rain midweek, Wednesday and Thursday are looking stormy, but don’t get your hopes up. This dome isn’t done with us yet. Highs will stay in the 90s at least through June 27, because apparently, this heatwave doesn’t believe in polite exits.

The good news? It’s not forever.
The bad news? It’s only June.

What’s Up With That Border?

If you’ve ever looked at a map of Columbus and thought, “Why does our city look like it was drawn with a broken Etch A Sketch?” you’re not alone. This week’s “What’s Up With That?” comes from reader Raymond D’Angelo, who noticed Columbus has a few... odd geographic features. Like disconnected blobs of city limits, suburbs surrounded by Columbus proper, and mysterious limbs stretching down highways like municipal octopus arms.

The short answer? Annexation. Lots of it.

Back in the 1950s, city leaders were terrified Columbus would end up like Cleveland or Cincinnati, ringed in by suburbs, stuck with shrinking tax bases, and watching their growth grind to a halt. So they got creative. Under the leadership of Mayor M.E. “Jack” Sensenbrenner, Columbus began tying access to water and sewer services to one simple condition: join the city.

You want plumbing? Welcome to Columbus.

As surrounding townships thirsted for basic utilities, Columbus annexed them, not all the way in, just enough to count. The result is the sprawling, tentacled border we have today. The city ballooned from 40 square miles in 1950 to more than 220 today, absorbing entire zip codes while oddly skipping over suburbs like Bexley, Whitehall, and Upper Arlington, which incorporated early enough to escape the Columbus gravity pull.

These early survivors now sit like islands inside the Columbus empire. And no, your GPS isn’t lying, you really do cross in and out of multiple municipalities on your way to Kroger.

Was it worth it? Depends on who you ask. The strategy kept Columbus from going the way of other rust belt cities and helped the population (and income tax revenue) grow. But it also left us with suburban sprawl and glaring infrastructure gaps, like the fact that 60% of Columbus doesn’t have sidewalks. Turns out you can annex a neighborhood, but you can’t always pave it.

So the next time you drive down a street where your trash pickup changes mid-block or a sidewalk just… disappears, remember: it’s not chaos, it’s Columbus. By design.

Trivia Answer:

C) Correct answer: Ellen