Highway Traffic Delayed After Blowout Ends In Blaze
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Floyd Clemmons and his wife Hazel started their morning hauling plant dirt to Tyler, but a blowout and no shoulder to pull over on resulted in a tractor-trailer fire.
Clemmons said he was driving east on Texas Highway 64 from Canton Wednesday morning when he heard and felt a tire blowout.
“I knew right away that I had a blowout, but there wasn’t a shoulder to pull off onto so I kept driving looking for a spot to get off the road,” he said.
As he continued driving, the tire became hotter and finally sparked into a fire.
“I looked out the window and saw the flames and thought, ‘Heavens to Betsy,’” he said.
Clemmons said he grabbed his fire extinguisher, but the fire had already spread to the trailer, which, along with the tractor, belong to Orman Brothers’ Trucking in Rosser.
Dixie and Lindale fire departments arrived at the intersection of Highway 64 and Farm-to-Market Road 279 and firefighters quickly went to work extinguishing the fire.
Mrs. Clemmons said the entire ordeal was scary, but she knows there are dangers on the road.
“Floyd’s been talking for awhile now about getting his own truck and us going into business, but I told him, ‘Daddy we’re not spring chickens anymore,’” she said.
Traffic was slowed while firefighters put out the fire.
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