AFIRE which destroyed both trailers of a B-double truck saw the Princes Hwy closed east of Dartmoor for around 12 hours, on Thursday.


CFA Dartmoor Group Officer, Neale Emerson said the incident happened near Winnap around 3.30am, the truck’s load of tissue and toilet paper meaning there was very little firefighters could do to save the trailers.


“There was no concern for the driver or the truck itself; the prime mover had been disconnected from the trailers, but the load was highly flammable, so it was quickly taken over,” he said.


The hot and fast fire spread onto the road easements on both the north and south sides of the highways, but fire crews – including two private timber company appliances – prevented it from spreading further.


“It was not far from my house, I was the first on the scene with a private until, we had Dartmoor, Drik Drik, Mumbannar, Nelson and Lyons Brigades there, as well as Josh Pridham from Hancock Plantations, who brought their slip-on … it was a big effort,” Mr Emerson said.


“The real difference was the arrival of specialist gear from the timber company, One Forty One.


“They have a compressed air foam system that’s not available in Victoria and that really helped us bring it under control.”


Mr Emerson said the cause of the fire was unknown.


“There’s not really any cause yet, it was possibly a bearing or a brake, something on the back trailer that caused a spark,” he said.


In the following 12 hours, heavy haulage equipment was brought from Geelong to remove the remains of the truck from the road and clean up of the highway was undertaken.


“It’s … about 4pm now, we have not long been left there … it was a hot fire, a big clean up to get the road back open,” Mr Emerson said.


“We had police on the scene, Barco, detours in place.”