POLK COUNTY, Fla. -- Around 9:45am Thursday, the smog had cleared enough for crews to begin moving equipment back to the scene to resume progress on repairing the roadway. Meanwhile, the Florida Highway Patrol warned drivers to stay off the roads Thursday morning, because driving conditions were as bad if not worse than Wednesday morning.

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DAY AFTER SLIDESHOWS: Mangled, Burned Vehicles | Repairs Resume | Smog Returns
SLIDESHOWS: Aerial Images | Ground Images | Images Of Fog, Smoke
I-4 STATUS: Detour | Construction | Controlled Burns
FIND: Incidents On Local Roads, Alternate Routes

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Crews tried to work through the night, Wednesday, to repair a stretch of I-4 damaged in a fiery 70 car pile-up, but had to suspend their efforts when more fog and smoke filled the air and construction crews could not see.

Florida and local officials said four people were killed and 38 were injured in the mangled, fiery wrecks.

The blazes left what amounted to a 650-foot wide hole in the interstate that will have to be repaired before the roadway can be reopened. Authorities thought if all went well, there was a possibility that could happen by mid-morning Thursday, but they weren't making any promises. The damage was most significant in the eastbound lanes. Diesel fuel spilled during the crash which softened and damaged the interstate.

The crash investigation is tedious. Each vehicle involved had to be examined before it was removed from the scene. By late Wednesday night, that task had been completed.

A stretch of nearly 15 miles between Tampa and Orlando (between US-27 in Polk County and exit 55-Haines City) was closed by several accidents, including the 70-car pileup. Aerial footage showed the soupy mix of fog and smoke covering the landscape for miles and giving the sky an eerie golden color in the morning.

The poor visibility hampered rescue efforts, forcing officials to walk along the closed stretch of I-4 checking individual vehicles for injuries, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Coggins said. The conditions later cleared up, showing charred trucks and crumpled cars pinned underneath some tractor trailers.

The names of the victims have not been released, but all died at the scene. Coggins confirmed that 38 people were injured, five of them seriously.

Three patients were sent to Orlando Regional Medical Center. Lakeland Regional received seven trauma victims. Two went to Tampa General Hospital and the Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center in Haines City treated four people. About a dozen of the least injured people were bussed to Winter Haven Hospital. South Lake Hospital in Clermont and Florida Hospital Celebration also received crash victims.

Three trauma nurses in Lakeland spent a tense morning worrying about their husbands. All three work in the Orlando area and would have been on the road around the time of the accident. All three turned out to be OK.

Crews worked late in the morning to rescue one man pinned beneath an overturned truck. Numerous tractor trailers overturned on the roadway, including a tanker. At least six of them burned completely.

"Everything came to a halt," said Robert Ellison, a motorist driving east on the highway about 6 a.m. "You can't see your hand in front of your face."

Ellison said he narrowly avoided an accident and stopped to try to help trapped motorists. "There was no indication of anything. Then you couldn't see 5 feet," he said.

Some 20 tractor trailers were involved. They included a mail truck bound for the processing center at Orlando International Airport. The driver of that truck survived but the mail was damaged. Postal inspectors are trying to determine exactly what was on the truck.

Three Bealls Furniture trucks, and a Kane's Furniture truck were also involved. The drivers of those trucks were not injured.

One of the first accident victims was a sheriff's deputy, Judd said. Deputy Jack Turner III told Judd that conditions on the road worsened suddenly.

"'It was clear, it was a little foggy, then it was total darkness,"' Polk Count Sheriff Judd recounted the deputy saying Wednesday morning.

The sheriff added that although Turner was shaken up, he helped move people to safety as vehicles continued to pile up -- the sounds of metal grinding and gnashing in the darkness.

Turner was haunted, however, by those he couldn't save. "'I watched a man burn to death today,"' Judd recounted the deputy saying afterward.

The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the crash and the role of smoke from the fire that started as a controlled burn and grew out of control.

Judd said Wednesday morning he was "exceptionally concerned" about the decision to start a fire during dry conditions and days after a freeze likely added more tinder. State officials are still investigating how the fire got out of control.

Coggins said a contributing factor of the crashes was the fog, but downplayed the smoke from the fire. He said troopers patrolled the area earlier Wednesday morning and smoke was not an issue.

Since Tuesday, firefighters have battled the controlled burn that grew out of their grasp and charred 400 acres. The fire, which is burning roughly half a mile from the highway, is 90 percent contained, Division of Forestry spokeswoman Chris Kintner.

She said forestry workers notified the highway patrol that smoke from the blaze could mix with fog.

Signs warning people of the smoke were placed on the interstate, but Kintner said she did not know if the they were illuminated.

Florida Fish and Wildlife is also investigating the burn to see what happened to allow it to get out of control.