On the westbound freeway

Truck driver reacted with presence of mind to fire

The emergency services were able to extinguish the fire quickly.

(Bild: Werner Kerschbaummayr)

Early Monday morning, a truck driver on the Westautobahn near Ebelsberg suddenly noticed: thick smoke rising, tires on fire! The 62-year-old had the presence of mind to park his vehicle in the breakdown bay and the emergency services rushed to the scene.

Before the early morning traffic really got rolling at the start of the week, it had already come to a standstill: at around 5.30 a.m. on Monday, the tires of a truck trailer caught fire as it was driving towards Vienna on the Westautobahn. At Ebelsberger Berg, the 62-year-old driver of the articulated truck noticed the fire because a car driver had alerted him by honking his horn. The 62-year-old immediately drove onto the emergency lane.

He uncoupled the towing vehicle from the trailer and immediately tried to tackle the flames himself with hand-held fire extinguishers. However, neither he nor another witness nor the police officers who arrived shortly afterwards were able to do so with their hand-held fire extinguishers.

Fire quickly under control
Only the fire departments - the Markt St. Florian, Ebelsberg and Rohrbach fire departments as well as a fire engine from the Linz professional fire department were deployed - were able to contain the flames and prevent a full fire. A major hazard on the busy A1 was thus averted.

Nevertheless, the A1 was completely closed for a short time and the right-hand lane was closed for the duration of the fire-fighting work, which led to a massive traffic jam. After the work was completed, the road was fully reopened at around 8 a.m.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the truck fire.