Flames from possible brake fire spread into cargo hold of UPS truck. / Courtesy photo by Washington State Patrol
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Crews were still on the scene this morning dealing with a fire that engulfed a UPS truck just south of the Maytown Rest Area on Interstate 5.
Firefighters were called out just after 1 a.m. to the southbound lanes near milepost 92 to find the closed box trailer well involved in flames, according to West Thurston Regional Fire Authority.
They managed to cut the box away from the tractor itself and remained on the scene as of 9 a.m. extinguishing hot spots, Fire Chief Robert Scott said.
Nobody was hurt.
The rig was hauling 19,000 pounds of cargo, according to the Washington State Patrol.
Scott said it wasn’t individual packages for delivery, but was pallets of bulk items. The pallets he saw were things like children’s toys, speaker systems and computer boards, he said.
The area is down to one lane and traffic is congested, the chief said.
A fire crew is assisting contractors, who have a dump truck to take away the remains of the load, and a tow truck was working to right the trailer which had tipped onto its side, he said.
They believe it may have been a brake fire on the truck itself that spread to the trailer, Scott said.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Hopefully the local yocals can get some training that better educates them on risk vs. benefit of interior attack for a clearly collapsing, non life-threatening tractor trailer fire.
I sure hope my swimming pool I ordered isn’t in that truck because I sure could use it now!