As a Roofer’s Mart semi made its way down a southern Illinois highway, the driver was oblivious to a problem that only a short time later would end up destroying his entire rig: flaming brakes.
Luckily for the trucker, a Good Samaritan was following close behind on I-24 near Vienna (see map below).
“I was smelling something burning, and as I got closer I could tell the back left brake assembly on the truck was on fire,” Matt Choate told wsiltv.com.
Choate, who recorded the entire incident last week, pulled up alongside the trucker and kept honking his horn until he got his attention and convinced him to pull over.
The trucker doused the brakes with a fire extinguisher, but the flames spread up the trailer’s curtain and soon engulfed the entire rig.
As the truck burned on the shoulder of the road, its tires began exploding—apparently unbeknownst to law enforcement officers who kept waving on motorists to drive past the burning rig. Choate tried to get officers to stop as the truck’s flaming tires shot like missiles across the road.
Thankfully, no one was hurt. Besides losing the truck and trailer, Roofer’s Mart also lost about 18,000 pounds of roofing shingles and siding in the blaze.
WSIL-TV 3 Southern Illinois
