40,000 Lbs of Rice – Midnight Trailer Fire West of City Limits
July 9th, 2010 by Joe Burgess
Just after midnight, calls began coming into Monticello dispatch, reporting a tractor-trailer engulfed in flames on HWY 278 West, between the city limits and the sports complex.
Drew County Sheriff’s Deputies and the Monticello Fire Dept responded, to find the trailer of the big-rig (containing an estimated 40,000 of Uncle Ben’s rice products) on fire, on the shoulder of the highway.
The driver had unhooked the tractor from the trailer, and pulled it to safety.
After extinguishing the outside blazes, the firefighters then had to unload the back section of the trailer by hand, in order to get to the area of the floor and wall that were still a “hot spots”.
They then had to re-load the damaged product back onto the trailer by hand, in order to re-open that section of the roadway.
Triple A Towing was called to move the remains of the trailer off of the highway.
The driver picked up the load of rice products in Greenville, MS, and was to deliver it to Mesquite, TX.
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A BIG THANKS GOES OUT TO OUR FIREFIGHTERS AND POLICE OFFICERS
I notice this was a Crete trailer…it could have easily have been my husband who drives for Crete and runs that same route. What caused the fire?
I drove by the remains this morning.
I am moved to ask, How did this happen?
Spontaneous combustion caused by the heat we’ve been having? static electricity? something from the brakes.
I’m glad the driver thought fast and nobody was hurt.
I would say it was a brake issue. We drove by Triple A and it looks like the fire started in the brakes. It is fairly common for trailer brakes to over heat and catch fire.
Fried Rice…