ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 12, 1997 TAG: 9703120041
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEMBROKE
SOURCE: JON CAWLEY THE ROANOKE TIMES
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on March 13, 1997.
The tractor-trailer that caught fire and blocked U.S. 460 Monday in
Giles County belonged to Great Coastal and was carrying a lpoad of
acetate filter tow from the Hoechst-Celanese Corp. Celco Plant near
Pearisburg. The ownership of the truck and the cargo were incorrectly
reported in Wednesday's New River Current.
Major incident averted by quick response.
A tractor-trailer fire brought traffic on busy U.S. 460 in Giles County to a standstill Monday evening.
The flames, started when overheated brakes caused two tires to catch fire, were extinguished before they reached the truck's combustible cargo.
The Hoechst-Celanese Corp. tractor-trailer, carrying a cargo of acetone tow used to make cigarette filters, was traveling east on U.S. 460 about 5 p.m. when two rear tires caught fire and blew out at Virginia 771, near Hoges Chapel, Trooper J.W. Smith said. He was unsure why the rig's brakes overheated when it was ascending a hill from Pembroke. The Hoechst-Celanese Celco Plant is located about eight miles away, outside Pearisburg.
The Pembroke Fire Department responded and put the fire out in about five minutes, before there was any danger of the cargo igniting. "We didn't have the hazard we thought we did," Smith said.
Acetone tow is not regulated as a hazardous material, but is a combustible, according to Zane Thomas, Giles County's hazardous materials coordinator.
"In order for [the cargo] to burn, the trailer itself would have to be engulfed in flames," Thomas said. "Flames would have to touch [the acetone] in order to burn."
After the fire was put out, it took another two and a half hours to tow the truck out of the road. A heavy-duty wrecker was called out, but the truck's brakes had locked up, preventing any movement. Police called Bobby Perdue, a diesel mechanic from Narrows, to free the brakes.
Meanwhile traffic backed up for about a mile, to Pembroke, before a lane could be opened. "Once the lane was reopened traffic filtered fine then," Smith said.
One accident occurred on U.S. 460 in relation to the fire-inspired traffic jam when a commercial truck struck a pickup truck from behind. No one was injured in the accident.
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