Burning tractor trailer cab closes Route 5 in Westminster

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC

A smoky tractor trailer fire at the junction of Routes 123 and 5 in Westminster closed both of those roads this afternoon.

According to Vermont State Police, at around 12:10, Joseph Walkins Jr., 35, of Miramar, Fla., was attempting cross over into New Hampshire with a tractor trailer load of silica when he decided that the rig would not fit through the railroad underpass.

When Walkins backed away from the underpass, troopers said, he heard a loud pop and saw some smoke but thought nothing of it until a passing motorist alerted him to the fire.

Walkins used the fire extinguisher in his truck to knock down the flames, but the blaze reignited. A second extinguisher from a nearby vet clinic also knocked down the fire before it came roaring back a second time.

The Westminster Fire Department responded and, according to Chief Cole Streeter, had the fire out within half an hour. When firefighters arrived there was thick black smoke and some questions about whether the truck’s cargo was hazardous. It was not.

By the time the fire was out, the tractor’s cab unit was a total loss and the trailer had buckled so it could not be driven from the scene.

According to State Police Cpl. Paul Dean, another truck would be needed to take the cargo off before a flatbed could be used to haul the wrecked trailer away. “This will be an all day operation,” said Dean.

There were no injuries.