Hematite Fire battled a tractor-trailer blaze on Monday morning, Sept. 2, that started in the vehicle’s brakes.
Deputy Chief John Chartrand said his district was alerted at about 8:45 a.m. to the tractor-trailer on fire in the 2400 block of Hwy. 67 in the northbound lanes across the highway from Gold Star Harley-Davidson.
“The arriving units found active fire from the tractor’s rear,” he said. “The tractor’s rear brakes had locked up, which caused fire in the brakes and burned the tires. From there the fire went to the trailer. The tractor was pulling a Tyson trailer carrying frozen chicken. It was about three-quarters full of chicken.
“The tractor and trailer were totaled. The chicken was all burned up.”
He said there were no injuries to the driver or firefighters in the incident.
Firefighters remained on scene for about two hours and the incident affected traffic for that length of time, he said.
“We shut down (the northbound lanes) for about an hour and a half to put out the fire,” he said. “(The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office) rerouted traffic to Meyer Road. It was partly shut down to one lane for another 20 minutes so a tow truck could haul away the tractor-trailer.”
The Crystal City, Festus and De Soto fire departments and the De Soto Rural, Hillsboro and Jefferson R-7 fire districts assisted while Dunklin Fire moved up to the Hematite Fire Station.