Truck destroyed in inferno

A straw bale inferno on a transport truck and trailer that engulfed the vehicle and produced a huge black plume of smoke just out of Masterton was one of two fires around midday yesterday that had the Fire Service stretched.
The first call-out was to a grass fire on Chester Road, between Carterton and Masterton, about 11.40am, then at noon Masterton Fire Service was alerted to a truck carrying a load of straw that had mysteriously burst in to flames at the Kibblewhite Road end of Akura Road, just west of Masterton.
The pall of black smoke from the truck fire could be seen from Masterton Fire Station in Chapel Street and the blaze had already engulfed the entire truck by the time firefighters arrived.
Firefighters had only one engine at their disposal and no access to a water supply so they could only contain the flames and stop the fire spreading while they waited until more engines and tankers arrived.
The driver of the truck had noticed a plume of smoke in his rear vision mirror as he was driving on Akura Road and by the time he had got out of the truck and tried to extinguish the flames, which were at the rear of the straw load, the blaze was already out of the control.
Both occupants of the truck managed to safely escape the cab.
Masterton station officer Garry Nielsen said it was a very intense fire with high heat and thick black smoke.
Once a second fire crew arrived the two tankers were able to subdue the inferno, but not before the truck was destroyed.
"The whole thing is knackered," Mr Nielsen said.
He said the truck would have been beyond saving even had more engines been on the scene at the start.
"We were never going to save anything, hence the containment," he said.
A fire engine was called as back up from Greytown to Carterton Fire Station in a covering move in case of any further incidents.
The truck that was destroyed is owned by a Palmerston North trucking company.
A Masterton District Council tractor was later used to cart away the remnants of the bales of straw.
The Fire Service said they are unsure what caused the straw to ignite, but it appears that it started at the rear of the load.