Some early morning excitement on the TransCanada Highway west of Swift Current early this morning.

Emergency crews were on location at the Webb turn-off approximately 32 kilometres west of Swift Current.

They were responding to a semi-tanker that had caught on fire, reportedly carrying 72,000 litres of gasoline.

A passing driver at 5:30 a.m. was able to capture a photo of the burning vehicle before the authorities arrived on the scene and blocked off the westbound lanes in both directions.

Bentley Gibson is the Fire Chief for RMs of Gull Lake, Webb and Carmichael. He spoke with Swift Current Online shortly after the fire had been brought under control.

"It was burning in between the bridge of the trailer. It's a super-B, and it said 72,000 litres of gasoline on it. So it brought our attention level very quickly up to a high level. We made a game plan. We got the R.M. involved with the graders ready for dyking and called in our mutual aid partners."

Gibson added that the ministry of the environment was in contact with them due to the nature of the potential spillage and that the cleanup crews should be on had by dinner time.

Luckily, once the fire had died down a bit, Gibson and his team were able to approach nearer to extinguish the flames and cool down the vehicle. In the first stages, with the risk of explosion, protecting lives took priority.

"An hour went by. It's a very unpredictable flammable product. So we didn't know what it was going to do. Life is precedent over anything. We're not going to get anybody hurt. There were no injuries at that point. With that said, we planned to do what we could to make it the least dangerous to us. By then the first had tamed down quite a bit. All the wheels burned off the trailer and it burned a hole in the trailer in the back, so with that, we moved in and cooled it with water and we got it controlled."

Along with the Gull Lake Fire Department, Swift Current Rural was on site as well, and Swift Current City brought out a tanker unit.

As previously mentioned, there were no injuries reported, and as of the time of this article, traffic has resumed westbound, however it is limited to a single lane.