I-64 commercial truck fire results in cleanup, lane closures

A commercial truck hauling food products caught fire Sunday morning around 11:30 after a tire blowout on eastbound I-64 near the Midway rest area, Woodford County Emergency Management Director Drew Chandler said. He said efforts by the truck driver to put the fire out with his fire extinguisher were unsuccessful. “So the fire grew and grew up to the point that there wasn’t much left of the product that he was carrying or the trailer,” said Chandler. Both lanes of I-64 eastbound were shut down intermittently while Woodford County firefighters used water to suppress the fire, which created a runoff situation that resulted in food products contaminating some of the soil, Chandler explained. “It was classified by the (state) Environmental Cabinet Response Team as bio-waste,” said Chandler. He said a crew continued removing contaminated soil Monday and would likely return for additional remediation work Tuesday “to return the site to the pre-spill condition.” The pork product that burned in the fire created a slurry mixture that Chandler likened to the drippings created when grilling meat. He said the size of the runoff was roughly the footprint of a house. In addition to the Woodford County Fire Department and local Emergency Management, Chandler said Woodford County Emergency Medical Services, the Versailles Police Department and State Police responded to the fire involving the truck owned by Prime, Inc.