Truck/trailer fire shuts down U.S. 231 for several hours

Compressed natural gas fed a fire that engulfed a UPS truck with two trailers, closing U.S. 231 in Witz Bottoms for several hours Monday evening.

According to Jasper Chief Kenny Hochgesang, the fire department had just finished a training session at MasterBrand in Jasper when they were dispatched to the fire scene at about 8:30 p.m.

The fire started in the truck’s engine compartment, and the driver was able to pull over and notify authorities. He also attempted to disconnect the truck from the trailers to prevent the fire from spreading, but the compressed gas-fed fire spread too fast.

Once on the scene, firefighters found the straps holding the compressed gas tanks to the truck had burned up, and the tanks were on the ground venting. The truck held multiple tanks, each measuring about six feet long by two and a half feet wide. Each refuel allows for the route from Louisville through Southern Indiana and back, so it was estimated the tanks were about half full.

This expulsion of gas continually fed the fire, which was extremely hot. The heat melted the aluminum on the trailers and truck and a 20-foot-long section of the guardrail. The road was also damaged and potholed by the heat. Hochgesang said a small grass fire started despite the wet conditions, but it was contained by the flooding.

Between the added fuel from the gas tanks and the tightly packed product and shipping materials in the trailers, the fire was difficult to fight.

“The trailer reminded me of fighting a house fire with hoarding issues,” he explained. “There was so much product in there and packed so tight, we couldn’t get in there to fight the fire.”

As the sides of the trailers burned down, firefighters used ladders to spray water into the exposed material to suppress the flames.

Jasper also called for assistance from Huntingburg, which responded with a pumper, tanker, and brush truck and seven firefighters. Huntingburg refilled the tanker once during the incident. Hochgesang estimated they used about 9,000 gallons of water to suppress the fire. He said they could have drafted water from nearby water sources like a lake, and the flood waters were within reach, but the steep incline from the road to the floodwater precluded them from pulling water from the area.

They went through all that water, and Huntingburg went back to refill and returned to the scene.

Firefighters contained it while law enforcement blocked traffic in both directions. The road was closed until a little after 1 a.m., though officials opened it for a short time while on the scene.

Once the fire was under control, though not extinguished, a Ruxer tow truck was able to remove the truck from the road. The material in the trailers was still burning, but Stork’s Towing was able to pull them to a gravel parking lot at Sternberg’s.

“It was still on fire going down the highway,” Hochgesang said, adding they moved it there to allow the highway to reopen.

At Sternberg’s, Little Si’s used an excavator to pull the material apart to allow firefighters to extinguish the burning remnants.

After finishing there, Little Si’s and responders returned to the scene of the fire to clean up debris on the roadway and surrounding area.

No injuries were reported during the fire.

Jasper responded with four trucks and 30 firefighters.

The cause of the fire was unknown as of Tuesday morning.