Sudden fire torches semi-truck on road in Barstow, authorities cite mechanical flaw
A fire incinerated the cab of a semi-truck in Barstow late Tuesday on a busy road for commercial trucking activity.
Authorities reported no injuries and say a mechanical flaw is believed to have caused the blaze that consumed the vehicle.
A smell resembling burnt plastic began enveloping the air in gas stations and restaurants like Oggi’s Sports, Brewhouse and Pizza shortly before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. The source: a semi-truck cab owned by Los Angeles-based Zetinos Transport Inc., which caught flames on Lenwood Road roughly a block north.
Large billows of black smoke wafted from the truck as the fire rapidly spread in the vehicle. Firefighters from Barstow Fire Protection District hosed down the flames at about 8:40 p.m., but by that time, much of the cab’s body had been melted away and destroyed.
Nobody appeared to have been caught inside the vehicle when the flames reached their peak. The Daily Press was unable to locate the truck driver at the scene of the fire, though BFPD interim Chief Nick DiNapoli later said the driver was present on the side of the road that night.
The fire prompted a brief closure of the road’s stretch from a Del Taco to its intersection with High Point Parkway, blocking access to a northbound Interstate 15 off-ramp for a few hours.
DiNapoli said in a text that the cause of the fire “appears to be a mechanical issue.” He said no injuries were reported and that the first-response crew “saved all the product” by subduing the flames before they extended from the cab to the container that the semi-truck was hauling.
The charred truck was hitched on an ARC Towing truck shortly before 10 p.m. and was later hauled away from the scene.
One receptionist at Oggi’s who witnessed the fire said he and coworkers who were on shift Tuesday night had been talking about it throughout the next day. “That was freaking wild,” he added.
Charlie McGee covers the city of Barstow and its surrounding communities for the Daily Press. He is also a Report for America corps member with the GroundTruth Project, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of journalists in the U.S. and around the world. McGee may be reached at 760-955-5341 or cmcgee@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @bycharliemcgee.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Sudden fire incinerates cab of semi-truck on busy road in Barstow
