Vehicle, brush fire brings northbound I-17 traffic to halt

MARC BUCKHOUT ~8/17/2011

A commercial vehicle carrying hay northbound on I-17 caught fire just south of Sunset Point at approximately 5:15 p.m. Friday. Black Canyon Fire Chief Thomas Birch said he headed north after receiving the call that a vehicle was on fire. “I got on the freeway heading north at mile marker 247 and saw a line of smoke that appeared to be at least a mile long,” he said. “It wasn’t that windy so that didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Then I arrived in the initial area and there were bails of hay burning in the middle of the freeway, which had some vehicles stopped. I drove around that hay and continued north where I found more and more bails of hay showering the freeway with flames, but still no sign of the vehicle.” Birch said he passed the Bumble Bee exit, where he saw more fires, before finally catching up to the vehicle at mile marker 251, one mile south of Sunset Point. It was at that point that he got the driver of the vehicle to pull his vehicle off the road. “From what I was told later by DPS officers the driver felt that his best chance to get the fire out was to try and get to Sunset Point where he thought he could get water,” Birch said. The hay from the truck caught the grass in the median, between north and southbound traffic, on fire. “That could have turned into an enormous fire, especially considering the conditions,” Birch said. “The potentials are extreme.” Along with the Black Canyon Fire Department Birch called in assistance from Daisy Mountain Fire Department, Mayor Fire Department as well as Yavapai Fire Department. Birch said the effort was broken up into three parts with Daisy Mountain handling the fires from mile marker 242 - 248, Mayor handling 248 – 250 and Black Canyon City dealing with the truck fire and the median at Sunset Point. All told it took three hours to get all the fires out. “The toughest part was the truck,” Birch said. “You have to pull all those bails of hay off the truck and pull them apart, otherwise they’ll just ignite again.” While the truck left hay in its wake, the fires left hundreds of northbound motorists stranded. By the time northbound traffic was reopened on I-17, at approximately 8:15 p.m., traffic was backed up past the Anthem exit at mile marker 229, approximately 23 miles south of Sunset Point. Birch said that southbound I-17 was also shutdown, but for no more than 30 minutes. “All told I’d say not much more than 15 acres burned, but it was one of the most unusual calls I’ve ever been to because the driver continued on instead of stopping,” Birch said. While the circumstances of Friday’s fire were unique Birch said there are a couple preventative steps motorists should take to avoid setting fires. “People that are hauling things need to make sure their trailer chains are not dragging,” he said. “The dragging chains create sparks and that’s all you need to light up the grass along the freeway. The other thing is to make sure to check your tire pressure regularly. Blowouts can cause a fire.” Birch added that Friday’s incident also was a reminder that motorists should keep provisions such as water and snacks in their cars as accidents or fires along the freeway can leave motorists stranded for several hours in extreme circumstances.