Tuesday’s truck fire.
Harden Fire and Rescue and the majority of local and regional emergency services were kept busy on Tuesday with a truck rollover at Coota and a truck fire, west of the Galong Crossroads at Harden.
With hazard reduction burning duties taking place and regular reports needing to be attended to, the Fire Brigade had to deal with two large scale ‘event’s early this week.
The Times spoke with Station Commander Wal Leonow about both incidents.
He said, “Around 3pm we got called to a truck rollover at Cootamundra.
“Our rehab van was called over to assist with a stock truck rollover and the driver was trapped.
“Gundagai was called to assist with the job also.
“The driver was trapped for a short time, but I don’t think he was seriously injured.
“They then dealt with the livestock.
“A short time after that we got called to an automatic fire alarm in town and then around 5:30pm this afternoon (Tuesday) we had a truck fire on the Burley Griffin Way.
“We had a semi trailer well-alight when we got there. The prime mover was well alight and extending into the trailer.
“The highway was blocked in both directions for around an hour until we extinguished the fire.
“Local Council assisted with two bulk water tankers and we had quite a few RFS tankers that assisted with water as well and fire attack.
“The truck was totally destroyed. The driver wasn’t injured. He said he was ‘cruising along’ and then there was smoke coming from underneath the cabin.
“It went up pretty quickly. He got out and rang 000.
“Local council also assisted with traffic control and we had Ambulance and Police on scene. The Ambulance was there for firefighter welfare and any other injuries and the Police for traffic flow.
“About an hour and a half later we were able to open one lane of the Burley Griffin Way.
“The incident was about 15kms east of Harden with lots of smoke, lots of fire, lots of heat.
“Once we put it out we retreated and left it to the Police and the RFS to get the traffic flowing and then the Heavy Vehicle Haulage were called in to remove the truck.
“The driver did well as he got it off the road as much as he could in a northbound lane before it went up.
“We managed to save the back of the trailer and it was carrying orange juice, so not a hazardous material incident even though the prime mover was totally destroyed and the front of the trailer.
“Crews worked in breathing apparatus and a local farmer also assisted as it started a grass fire when it went up, burning half an acre of grass.
“The crew got back and spent a couple of hours cleaning the hoses and the pump ready for the next job.
“Traffic was diverted from Wallendbeen and Bookham.
