
The big rig driver facing vehicular homicide charges over the deaths of four people in a 28-vehicle crash on the Interstate 70 in Colorado Thursday, has been pictured.

Police on Friday identified Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23, as the driver of the semi that they believe caused the pile-up west of Denver.

The massive collision sparked a 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit fireball which melted the road and metal on cars.

The suspect, who is from Texas and holds a commercial driver's licence, reportedly told his brother that his brakes had failed.

Aguilera is of Cuban descent and a permanent resident of the United States, and police said he was cooperating with the investigation.

He is pictured wearing orange jail garments in a mugshot released from Jefferson County Jail on Friday. In another mugshot he appears with a lip piercing.

Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23, from Texas faces four counts of vehicular homicide charges after his arrest on Friday. He's being held in Jefferson County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court Saturday. He appears left in his mug shot and right with a lip piercing in a driver's license image

Part of the I-70 was still closed Friday morning after the Thursday fireball crash that involved 28 vehicles. The chief engineer with the Colorado Department of Transportation said immense heat and oil could burn the road away

Aguilera is from Cuba and is a permanent resident of the United States his brother said on Friday

Aguilera has a commercial driver's licence and lives in Texas, police said on Friday

Aguilera's brother said that he spoke to him after the accident and he explained his brakes failed

A tow truck driver removes a burned out car at the scene of a fiery crash on I-70 near Colorado Mills Parkway Friday

What remains of a semi-tractor and trailer are carried away as workers clear debris from the eastbound lanes of I-70 on Friday

Workers clear debris from the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 on Friday, April 26, 2019, in Lakewood, Colorado

He was released from hospital with minor injuries after 'one of the worst accidents' the Lakewood area has ever seen, according to police.

The suspect is due in Jefferson County Court Saturday afternoon for an advisement hearing. He is currently being held without bond but a judge may consider bond during that initial hearing.

There was no information on whether he is represented by an attorney.

The crash happened just after the east-west highway descends from the mountains, where signs warn drivers to check to make sure their brakes are cool and working after traveling down the steep grades.

Aguilera was reportedly headed down a hill when he slammed into traffic slowed because of a previous crash ahead of him.

His brother Daniel Aguilera told CNN that he had spoken to his sibling following the crash and was told that his brakes failed.

Lakewood police spokesman John Romero described it as a chain reaction of crashes and explosions from ruptured gas tanks. 'It was crash, crash, crash and explosion, explosion, explosion,' he said.

Aguilera was said to driving this white flatbed semi that is seen being towed away from the scene on Friday

The West Metro Fire Department shared images of the aftermath of the incident that occurred on Thursday afternoon

A firefighter sprays water on the wreckage in Lakewood, Colo., after a deadly collision on Interstate 70 near the Colorado Mills Parkway

People were still trapped into burnt out car shells according to authorities

Firefighters are seen tackling the blaze at the devastating scene where Aguilera's semi crashed into other vehicles

Firefighters at the scene of the I-70 incident were working to recover bodies from the 28 vehicles involved

A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said the federal agency is monitoring local authorities' investigation into the crash but it is not involved. Peter Knudson said the NTSB's teams get involved when the agency sees an opportunity to issue new traffic safety recommendations.

Authorities said Friday morning that there were still bodies at the scene of the incident in burnt car shells and daylight would help the recovery. Investigators are still working to identify those killed.

They were each the single occupant in their vehicles.

The crash occurred at 4.50pm Thursday but investigators were not able to get a closer look until around 10pm. It took five hours for West Metro Fire Rescue to extinguish the flames.

They admitted the number of motors caught in the incident was much higher than they thought due to debris getting in the way of the investigation. A total of 24 cars and four semis were counted.

'That number (of involved vehicles) is significantly higher than what we had last night,' Ty Countryman, a spokesman for the police department in Lakewood, Colorado, said. 'A lot of that is because once the debris of the semis and cars under semis — once we could get in and really start doing a car count, that's why that number really went up.'

Thursday's crash was 'one of the worst accidents' the Lakewood area has ever seen, according to police

As the scene was cleared on Friday it was still unclear how many people were injured in the Thursday car crash

Authorities survey the scene of a fiery crash on I-70 near Colorado Mills Parkway that shut down the highway in both directions on Friday

Emergency crews work at the scene of a deadly collision on Interstate 70 near the Colorado Mills Parkway in Lakewood

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a deadly collision on Interstate 70 near the Colorado Mills Parkway in Lakewood

'The carnage was significant. Just unbelievable,' Countryman said.

The charges for the man in Jefferson County Jail were decided after assessing evidence and carrying out interviews overnight.

There was no suggestion drink or drugs played a part in causing the crash. Countryman also said it didn't appear the 'devastating' crash was intentional. Investigators are looking at whether the truck lost its cargo, experienced brake failure or had some other mechanical issue that left the eighteen-wheeler unable to stop.

'It is true carnage there as far as the debris, what's left of cars and trucks, along with the cargoes that were in the semis,' Countryman said.

The spokesperson said there was enough probable cause to go ahead with the charges.

The road will be closed until at least Saturday.

Investigators were not able to get a close look at the scene until around 10pm after flames were extinguished. Bodies were said to still be on the scene as rescuers could not get deeper into the debris until the flames were gone. They said daylight would help them in the recovery

Police said the number of motors caught in the incident was much higher than they thought

At least six were injured during the evening commute when a tractor-trailer careened into several other vehicles.

'The vehicle came down and ended up colliding with slower traffic, causing a very big chain-reaction crash that also ignited and started a fire,' Countryman said on Thursday.

The fireball is estimated to have reached around 2,500-degrees Fahrenheit, according to Josh Laipply, chief engineer with the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Laipply said all of the heat and oil was able to burn the road away.

Images show the burned asphalt take on a gravel-like appearance and Laipply said heat 'can turn pavement into rubble, essentially'. The intense heat also melted the aluminum metal on cars.

'I was hitting other cars. When I came to a stop, I look in my rear view mirror and all I saw was a bunch of flames,' witness Brian Dickey told KMGH about being involved in the accident. 'And I jumped out of the vehicle as fast as I could. There was so much fire at the time that I couldn't even really approach any of the other vehicles to see if there was any other survivors or what.'

Traffic on I-70 where the crash occurred was already backed up because of an earlier accident involving a school bus, a semitrailer and a sedan.

All of the children aboard the bus were reported to be okay with just minor injuries. Some people were taken to a hospital for further examination.

Bystanders at the side of the road watched in horror at the carnage as fire crews worked hard to put out the blaze

Wooden beams and planks were seen strewn across the highway like matchsticks as the fire took hold

In the moments before the second more devastating accident, a YouTuber inadvertently captured the speeding big rig zooming along the shoulder, flying past his own car which was stuck in slow-moving traffic caused by the first crash.

The video, from Burger Planet, shows the speeding semi passing stopped vehicles at a colossal speed.

The camera is then rotated around to show a large plume of thick black smoke rising from where I-70 goes under Denver West Colorado Mills Parkway.

Joshua McCutchen told Good Morning America that a man who was standing by the road with a sign asking for money ended up saving the lives of four people by pulling them from the wreck.

'He's definitely a hero - he saved four people's lives,' the vlogger said. 'I've never seen that many cars and that much destruction and fire. It was just complete chaos.'

The road will also have to be resurfaced after it began to melt under the scorching temperatures

Engineers have now been called in to check on the stability of the bridge after the blaze hit

The runaway semi-truck plowed into standstill traffic, causing explosions and fire as several more vehicles were hit

The big rig had crashed and exploded into flames, igniting a number of other vehicles in its path.

Video footage of the accident's aftermath showed flames raging beneath and around the overpass. Black smoke could be seen rising into the air around the scene.

One of the trucks was carrying lumber. That, coupled with a diesel spill, only added fuel to the fire.

'As soon as it rolled over, it just caught on fire. And I just dropped my sign, took off running,' Darin Barton - who has been homeless since an accident involving a light rail vehicle and a car in 2014 - said. 'As soon as I [saw] flames, I headed under the bridge, grabbed three or four people out of a couple cars.

'I didn't do this all myself. There were other people in traffic that helped.'

He told FOX31: 'I just did what I hoped anybody would've done if I was sitting down there.'

A stretch of Interstate 70, a major east-west highway route that runs through Denver into the Rocky mountains, was closed in both directions for several hours and it is unlikely to reopen before Friday morning's commute.

One of the semi tricks can be seen next to several cars including a Jeep and another SUV that were involved

A preliminary investigation suggests Aguilera lost control of the semi-truck, resulting in the explosion and fire

The big rig was one of four that were reportedly involved in the accident, each of them bursting into flames

There were numerous explosions as a result of the accident yet traffic was still driving on the bridge directly above

Helicopter footage shows the blaze in its early stages before the fire really took hold

A bridge over the Denver crash site was damaged in the blaze, and engineers from the Colorado Department of Transportation responded to check its stability

Countrymen said engineers from the Colorado Transportation Department were inspecting the overpass bridge for possible structural damage from the fire. There is also road damage from the inferno.

Preliminary investigations suggest Aguilera lost control resulting in the explosions and fire as several other vehicles were hit.

It was not immediately clear which vehicles accounted for the fatalities.

A West Metro Fire Rescue firefighter was also injured by an explosion, fire officials said.

The firefighter was hit by debris, possibly an exploding tire. His injuries were described as minor.

I-70 is Colorado's vital east-west highway that connects the mountains with the plains and traffic has grown worse as the state's population has boomed.

The shock on Joshua McCutchen aka Burger Planet's face is clear, as he notes the speed of the big rig flying by