German Township volunteers clean cheese mess off I-65

German Township Volunteer Firefighters helped scrape cheese off of Interstate 65 late last night after a truck fire.

Matt Lynch, the deputy chief, reports that firefighters were called to a truck fire just north of the Edinburgh exit on the Interstate at about 8:24 p.m. The truck driver said he had picked up a load of liquid cheese in Wisconsin and had just noticed that the trailer’s brakes were smoking.

Before he could pull over, flames started shooting out of the trailer’s back wheels and one tire exploded from the heat. He stopped, unhooked the cab and moved away.

Lynch says that German Township volunteers were able to contain the fire to the back of the trailer, before it could spread to the refrigeration unit. After putting out the fire by about 10:30 p.m., the firefighters returned to the scene at 12:30 this morning to clean the cheese off the road.

The interstate was completely reopened by about 1:30 this morning. The southbound lanes were closed for about 5 hours.