Trailer full of fish catches fire

If Trevor Parsons hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee, his story might have ended very differently.

The driver for Wallace Rose Trucking of Flowers Cove escaped injury after the trailer load of capelin he was hauling caught fire early Tuesday morning.

He pulled over to the side of the Trans-Canada Highway next to the Tim Hortons in Port aux Basques just after 4 a.m. when he noticed the problem.

"I've got a bad habit of walking around the back end of my truck," said Mr. Parsons. Because he walked around the driver's side of his truck, he noticed one of his trailer's rear wheels glowing red. He suspects the bearing had seized up, causing the rim and tire to overheat from the friction.

Mr. Parsons ran back to the cab for a fire extinguisher. By the time he returned, the trailer was on fire.

He said he tried his best to put out the flames, but stepped back from the smoke just as the first tire exploded.

"Every tire was just popping one after another. That's 100, 110 pounds of pressure in each tire. There were pieces of wire all over the road and over in the water," he said.

About a dozen tires blow all together. Mr. Parsons said his ears were ringing for several minutes after the first explosion. He figures if any of the tires' steel belts had hit him, the blow would have probably killed him.

"I came very close to getting it," he said.

After the first explosion, he decided to get out of the way. He yelled to staff at Tim Hortons to call the fire department. He then unhooked his truck from the trailer and drove it away from the flames.

Port aux Basques Fire Chief Jerry Musseau said the rear of the trailer was engulfed in fames when they arrived on the scene.

The department used two pumper trucks to extinguish the fire. Chief Musseau said it was fortunate there was little traffic at that hour of the day.

The load of capelin, which Mr. Parsons said was worth about $50,000, was a write off.

Mr. Parsons said he was just glad he stopped when he did. He figures he would've ended up at the Marine Atlantic terminal, perhaps in the lineup of other vehicles, if he hadn't stopped for a coffee.

"There are times they wave you right on the boat," he said. "Who knows what could've happened."

reporter@gulfnews.ca