A fire engulfed the engine compartment of a commercial truck Thursday morning on the Mitchell Expressway.
Firefighters responded at 10:33 a.m. to a truck that was a side-dump trailer, said Greg Coon, a battalion chief at the University Fire Department.
The driver reported that, while driving on the Mitchell Expressway between Airport Way and University Avenue, he heard some kind of pop before seeing smoke coming from his engine compartment. Then flames erupted from the cowling on the driver side of the cab. “He got out and immediately tried to fight the fire with a dry chemical fire extinguisher, unsuccessfully because there was already more fire at that point than his small extinguisher could handle,” Coon said.