Grand Lakes Firefighters put out rig blaze in 8-degrees

Above, A cleanup crew finishes loading the remains of a tractor-trailer rig that burned off Exit 31 of Interstate 24 early Monday. Some of the carpet rolls, with which the trailer had been loaded, are seen in the foreground.-Keith Todd Photo

A Georgia truck driver escaped injury when his tractor-trailer rig loaded with rolls of carpet burned in the wee hours Monday.
Gary Ollis, was driving the Mike Frost Trucking rig from Georgia to Colorado when he noticed his brakes heating and stopped near Patti’s Inn and Suites, on Ky. 453 off Interstate 24, Exit 31, said Troy Newcomb, fire chief at Grand Lakes Fire Department.
Newcomb said Ollis saw smoke and pulled his rig onto the I-24 westbound entry ramp to get it away from the motel. “He tried to knock (the fire) down himself with a fire extinguisher,” the fire chief said.
Newcomb said someone at the motel notified the fire department at 1 a.m.
“It was fully involved when we arrived,” he said, adding that 15 firefighters responded in the 8-degree temperature.
The highway department also responded quickly and applied salt and sand to ramp to prevent an ice hazard on the ramp from the water that froze after firefighters sprayed the burning truck.
Livingston County Deputy Sheriff Jim Wilson, who also responded, said there were no injuries and it was not an accident scene so there was no investigation.