Firefighters have contained a truck fire on State Highway 1 carrying dog food supplies that caught fire north of Silverdale shortly after 1:30am. Video / NZ Herald
Local residents were woken by loud explosions after a truck carrying dog food caught fire on Auckland’s northern motorway.
Fire and Emergency received multiple calls about 1.30am on Thursday, saying a Mainfreight truck-and-trailer unit was ablaze near Wainui, about 1.8km north of the Silverdale off-ramp.
Northbound lanes on StateHighway 1, between the Silverdale off-ramp and Grand Drive off-ramp, were closed for more than nine hours, as roading crews cleared cargo.
NZ Transport Agency confirmed at 11.10am that all lanes were open.
Pūhoi Volunteer Fire Brigade chief fire officer Jared Rehm said the fire was “really going for it” when they arrived.
Wainui resident Glen McLean, who lives about 100m from the incident, said he was jolted awake by the loud “bang” of exploding tyres about 1.40am.
“We did not know at that stage they were the tyres, we just heard explosions.
“It woke a large portion of our neighbourhood up because the smoke was travelling across a significant amount of houses … I’d say around 50 houses were getting washed by the smoke.
“It was very shocking to be laying in bed and hearing the explosions and not knowing what it was. It was a little bit confusing. Once we got up, the fire services were there very quickly.”
The Mainfreight truck caught fire on SH1 near Silverdale about 1.30am, waking up nearby residents.
McLean drove to the other side of the motorway to inspect the incident, where more tyres exploded with “a toxic smell coming from the truck”.
“They were very loud. It was no joke … It could have been a much bigger explosion. In your mind you’re thinking [it’s a] 9kg LPG tank exploding, but it wasn’t.”
Tanker driver Cam Ferguson, who stopped to help the stricken driver, said the fire was burning fiercely.
“[The] driver had a tyre blow out which caused damage to the rear underside of the truck, causing the fire.
