I-95 Truck Fire Sparks Traffic Chaos in Greenwich

Yeah, this happened at 11:30 am yet at 6:00 pm it took forever getting home and that was the backroads!

Greenwich Time- A mid-morning, tractor-trailer fire on Interstate 95 North between exits 4 and 5 jammed up traffic throughout the region Friday as firefighters worked to break down pieces of burnt cardboard in the truck in order to extinguish the flames.

The 18-wheeler caught fire around 11:20 a.m. and the driver was able to safely pull to the side of the road, officials said. The driver was not injured during the incident.

The fire forced officials to close the northbound right and center lanes of I-95, as well as part of the left lane. The lanes remained closed until the fire department cleared the scene at 4:45 p.m.

Deputy Fire Chief Keith Millette said it appeared the fire had been burning for some time before it was detected.

"It obviously had been burning in the truck for a quite a while before the driver noticed it," Millette said. "Almost every bundle in the truck had some damage to it, but none of them were completely burned."

Putting out the fire took nearly five hours because firefighters had to remove the smoldering cardboard in the back of the truck piece-by-piece by cutting holes in the truck's side.

"Because of the compacted cardboard, we needed to have the truck unloaded before we finished putting it out," Milletten said. "We were taking it, busting up the bundles and putting the fire out, then loading it out."

While the highway was closed, traffic was diverted through the breakdown lane, causing congestion back to exit 3. There was also congestion on the southbound side of the highway, from exits 10 to 4.

Greenwich police said town roads were extremely congested due to the highway closures Friday afternoon into the evening.

"Everyone is trying to backtrack to get to the Merritt Parkway, so traffic is much heavier than normal," Sgt. Dave Nemecek said just before the highway was re-opened Friday evening. Police throughout town were forced to respond to routine calls using lights and sirens to cut through the jammed roadways.

Fire officials are still investigating the cause of the fire.