A box truck damaged by fire Sunday afternoon on Brunswick Highway was placed on hold for investigation by the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Motor Carrier Division, according to an incident report by the Ware County Sheriff’s Office.
Major Neil Skerratt said the truck, which had unknown contents, was placed on hold for the MCD and towed from the scene of the 3:25 p.m. fire after the blaze was extinguished by Ware County Fire & Rescue personnel.
The fire was one of two in the area last week involving vehicles. The other was Tuesday, August 25 on Memorial Drive south of Waycross where a 2015 Kia Soul was a total loss after firefighters arrived to find it fully engulfed in flames.
After arriving on the scene of Sunday’s fire, Deputy Courson spoke with firefighters who said they had spoken to the driver about the circumstances of the blaze, the report said. They said the driver, who was not able to be identified because he no longer was at the scene when Deputy Courson arrived, said he was driving when he noticed the engine was on fire, but didn’t know what could have caused it.
The report said the driver told firefighters he didn’t know what items were in the truck, only that he was told to pick it up in Savannah and drive it to Jacksonville, Fla.
The deputy spoke to another witness who said he was driving east on Brunswick Highway in an emergency medical services vehicle when he saw the truck on fire. He said he put his emergency lights on and turned around to see if he could help, but was unable to reach the area of the fire because the road was blocked.
The report said the witness saw a man at the scene get into a white hatchback vehicle that then drove east into Brantley County.
Deputy James Jacobs responded to the August 25 vehicle fire in the 300 block of Memorial Drive to find it already extinguished by firefighters.
The driver of the Kia, Mose Junior Clayton, 67, of Homerville, said he was traveling south on Memorial Drive when he heard a loud popping sound and then saw smoke coming from under the hood, the report said. He pulled to the shoulder and saw flames coming out of the hood, and exited the vehicle.
Clayton told Deputy Jacobs as soon as he left the vehicle, flames spread to the entire passenger compartment. The driver said he had put oil in the engine before leaving Homerville and it had been running fine.
Jeffrey Klepinger, 54, of Keystone Heights, Fla., was driving north on Memorial Drive when he saw Clayton on the side of the road with the vehicle on fire, the report said. He said he helped Clayton get farther away from the car and into his vehicle until authorities arrived.
The report said firefighters were not able to determine the origin of the fire because of the vehicle’s condition after the blaze was extinguished.
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