Cream lorry blazes a trail
Traffic mayhem this Tuesday morning on the A75 between Castle Douglas and Gatehouse of Fleet when an articulated lorry caught fire. DG
HOT milk and exploding cream cartons caused chaos on the main A75 Gretna-Stranraer Euro-route in Galloway this morning.
An articulated lorry loaded with milk and pressurised cream containers, which had left Stranraer during the night, was found to be on fire as it came through the Stewartry area between Kirkcudbright and Castle Douglas.
Motorists tried to alert the driver Phil Sykes, from Cleveleys, Lancashire, who was heading south with the load of milk and cream.
But it was near the Kirkcudbright turnoff at Tarff, about seven miles west of Castle Douglas, before the driver became aware of the fire around 6am.
He managed to pull the lorry into the roadside where firefighters from Kirkcudbright and Castle Douglas extinguished the blaze after nearly two hours. They were hampered by the exploding skooshy cream containers and milk cartons, and traffic was delayed for more than two hours before single-file traffic was put in operation by police.
Mr Sykes said: “I phoned my boss to let him know but he said it was no use crying over spilled milk.The main thing was that no-one was injured.
“Motorists were flashing their lights and trying to alert me about the fire but I couldn’t see anything in the mirrors. Eventually when I stopped the trailer was well ablaze.
“It looks as if it was the brakes on the trailer which had seized and eventually burst into flames.”
A firefighter said: “The containers were exploding all around and there was milk everywhere.”
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Weather for Newton Stewart
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 4 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 29 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 28 mph
Wind direction: North west
