SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 2, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A semi-truck trailer caught fire on Interstate 80 Monday evening, causing traffic delays and leaving puns unavoidable.
No injuries were reported in the incident, which happened just after 6 p.m. at 13th East in Salt Lake City, according to the Utah Highway Patrol, as the driver was able to pull off the road and separate his truck from the burning trailer. No other vehicles were involved.
His cargo, a load of eggs, was likely a total loss, said Sgt. Cameron Roden, UHP public information officer.
The fire took nearly an hour to put out, he said, creating a great deal of smoke that, at times, brought all traffic to a standstill for 10 to 15 minutes at a time as the smoke wafted across the roadway. No word if the trailer’s load was fried or merely par-boiled.
Roden said an estimate of the value of the lost eggs wasn’t immediately available. But given the size of a typical box trailer — more than 50 feet long, eight feet wide and up to 10 feet tall — it could be sizable given the current inflated cost of eggs.
“They just got a little more expensive,” he said of the crash’s likely impact on the market, failing to keep a straight face.
Minor traffic delays continued until close to 10 p.m., given the logistics of hooking up the heavy wrecker needed to tow an omelet that size.
The fire originated in the back tires of the trailer, Roden said, likely from over-heated brakes. Such fires are a fairly regular occurrence for semi-trucks traveling mountain canyons, he said. The truck had just come westbound out of Parley’s Canyon.
Although sunny side up if not over-easy, nothing that hollandaise couldn’t help, the trailer was also considered a total loss. With apologies.
