Monday, August 31, 2015

300,000 eggs gone, traffic stopped for 7 hours, after semi-truck's back wheels caught fire on I-95 in Milford, Connecticut





People were stuck on Interstate 95 for hours while crews worked to clean up the mess that was left when a tractor trailer truck that was carrying eggs caught fire. (Published Monday, Aug. 31, 2015)
Fire on Egg Truck Closed I-95 for Almost 7 Hours 


By Jessie Sawyer and LeAnne Gendreau



Interstate 95 North in Milford was closed for almost seven hours on Monday morning after a tractor-trailer carrying hundreds of thousands of eggs caught fire.

The truck was heading from Pennsylvania to Springfield, Massachusetts, when the back wheels caught fire just before 4:30 a.m. and the blaze spread to the inside of the trailer, which was holding 25,000 dozens of eggs worth more than $50,000, according to the Milford Fire-Rescue Department.


The truck driver was able to get out of the truck and was not injured and firefighters put the fire out quickly.

Then came the labor-intensive process of unloading the 300,000 eggs and a forklift was brought in to move the pallets.


For almost seven hours, traffic was detoured off the highway at exit 33 and back on at exit 34.

Photos from Milford Fire-Rescue show several broken eggs littering the highway.


The scene was cleared as of 11:09 a.m.