Perfume truck goes up in flames on the M2
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An articulated lorry full of cosmetics and
perfume went up in flames on the M2 last night.
The 40ft lorry was on the London-bound carriageways between the
Chatham and Strood turn-offs when other motorists altered the
Polish driver that his front wheels were on fire.
The driver managed to pull the vehicle over to the hard shoulder
and he and a friend managed to get out of the cab before the blaze
spread.
Firefighters from Strood, Gillingham and two appliances Medway
were called out to deal with the fire at about 7.45pm and when
they arrived they found the cab of the lorry well alight.
The driver, who had suffered a bit of smoke inhalation, was
given oxygen at the scene by a doctor who had been driving past the
incident but had decided to stop to help out.
The crews, who had to use a shuttle water system to put out the
fire, say they managed to save about 90 per cent of the contents of
the lorry's container.
A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue Service, said: "We needed
four appliances as there was no water source at the scene so it
meant we had to send appliances to fill up with water and then
shuttle it back to the scene.
"The cab of the lorry was completely destroyed and the flames
did spread to the part of the container, but we managed to stop it
spreading any further and saved most of the cosmetics and perfume
on board.
"Luckily the doctor who had stopped spoke a bit of Dutch and so
did the Polish lorry driver, so he helped us communicate with
him.
"He told us his breaks had been sticking before the fire broke
out and quite often with big lorries like this one, this means the
break pads get really hot, so this was probably the cause of the
fire.
"The Highways Agency helped close the motorway for about 10
minutes until we could cone three lanes off to deal with the blaze
safely.
"There were tailbacks for other motorists for a while, but once
one lane was opened, motorists were soon able drive on.
"I think in the end the doctor took the driver and his mate back
home with him as they had nowhere to stay, which we thought was
really nice of him.
"We left the scene at about 9.20pm."
Friday, September 03 2010
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