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Tractor-trailer fire backs up I-77 traffic for miles
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Published: November 21, 2008
JONESVILLE
A tractor-trailer caught fire after an accident this morning south of Jonesville on Interstate 77, backing up traffic for miles, authorities said.
The driver, Gregory Keen, 52, of Columbia Tenn., was traveling north on Interstate 77 at about 7:25 a.m. when he blew a right front tire that sent his tractor-trailer to the right into the guardrail, then left into a concrete barrier in a construction zone, said Trooper Roger Mendenhall of the N.C. Highway Patrol. Keen was not injured.
The cab of the tractor-trailer began to burn, Mendenhall said. The fire was contained to the front of a double-trailer. There was some type of hazardous material in the rear trailer, but the fire never spread to it.
The highway patrol closed the northbound lanes of the interstate for more than two hours to clean up an estimated 200 gallons of diesel fuel that had leaked from the tractor-trailer's gas tank.
Traffic was detoured through U.S. 421 and U.S. 21 back to Interstate 77.
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