Details from semi fire on Trans-Canada Highway released

A semi that caught fire on the Trans-Canada Highway near Webb earlier this week caused the busy roadway to be shut down for multiple hours.

The Gull Lake Fire & Rescue received the call around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday regarding the incident about seven kilometres east of Webb.

By the time they arrived, the smoke coming from the cab of the truck had escalated.

"[The fire] burnt the truck right to nothing," Bentley Gibson, fire chief of the Gull Lake Fire & Rescue said. "It also started the ditches on fire. In between the highway and the south ditch.

"It had gotten into the trailer part where the mulch was and they had to bring other heavy-duty equipment in to make sure it was extinguished."

According to Gibson, the front portion of the trailer was damaged but most of the mulch would have been salvageable from the load.

The two eastbound lanes were initially closed, however, with the RCMP's help they converted the two westbound lanes into traffic heading in both directions for a short period of time.

"Some people were trapped there for over four and a half hours," he said. "The RCMP were doing the job but then all of a sudden they got called away and we had to shut down for those eastbound people."

The Trans-Canada Highway was re-opened to all traffic around 4 p.m.

"The guys did a great job," he said. "I didn't get on scene until a little later... When I got there they had the main part contained."

No injuries were reported from the incident.

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