Vehicle fire holds up traffic Wednesday

Firefighters douse the truck with foam to ensure the fire is entirely extinguished. The charred vehicle with melted tires was a total loss.

By Nicole Garner

Nevada Daily Mail

Vernon County resident Eva Park was safely able to escape her pickup truck before flames overtook the vehicle Wednesday afternoon.

Photos by Nicole Garner/Daily Mail A truck belonging to Eva Park caught fire Wednesday afternoon along south BB Highway. Park, who was in the car when the blaze started, was able to pull off the roadway and safely exit before the situation worsened.

Park was driving south, along BB Highway, en route to her farm, when she noticed smoke coming from under the cab of her vehicle. Park said she pulled off the roadway when flames began to appear, and after momentarily struggling to remove her stuck seat belt, exited the vehicle.

After, she said, the truck became engulfed.

"I'm lucky," Park said as Nevada firefighters extinguished the last flames with a sprayable foam. As she watched her vehicle being loaded onto a new tow truck, she joked lightheartedly that it was time to buy a new work truck and unfortunate that her husband had recently topped off the gas tank.

Vernon County deputies blocked off traffic along BB Highway between Stockade and Tallybend roads for approximately 30 minutes as fire crews worked in a driveway to smother the fire.

Park was the only occupant in the truck, and was not harmed during the incident. Her truck, with a charred body and melted tires, was destroyed.