I am glad the incident had a reasonably good outcome. This story of the fire begs the question: what was the cargo in that semi trailer ? Cargoes do not normally spontaneously start burning, unless the cargo was some sort of reactive substances. In that case, the load would have been considered as 'hazardous material', the rig should have been placarded accordingly, and the driver- having a 'hazmat endorsement' on his commercial driver's license (CDL) would be required to know how to handle the load, hazards associated with it, and to inform the firefighters of what the cargo was. It sounds like this driver did anything but that. The trailer, being orange in color, is likely one of Schneider's- a very large trucking firm. One would think that with today's means of tracking loads and trailers, an outfit like Schneider would have treated a load that could spontaneously burst into a full blown fire as 'hazmat' and put a properly qualified driver on it.
I am frankly surprised that the driver of that rig would stop it in front of businesses rather than head into an open area. That he cut the tractor off from the trailer and drove away from the burning trailer sounds like he may not have had any idea of what the correct response should have been.
I think the idea of the over-the-road trucker as the 'savior of the highway' or similar is worn a bit thin. Large fleet operators and the conditions under which many of the fleet drivers work have pretty much reduced many of the drivers to people who are simply doing a job with something less than the careful attitude and pride the older generations of truckers had.
When I was in my late 20's, as a young engineer on a powerplant job out in Wyoming, my employer asked me to get my CDL. They wanted me to deadhead on their rigs and be able to take over for a driver who might want a break or not be feeling well. They also wanted me to be able to move a rig locally on occasion. When you are in your 20's, you do not think too far ahead, and the idea of climbing up into the cab of a truck-tractor and driving it seemed like the a great idea. So, I was taken out on the jobsite and back roads, given a fast course in handling a semi, and in driving various types of transmissions. A number of the truck tractors were old heavy horses kept on site for their winches, and these were Autocars, having 5 speed main trannies and 4 speed auxiliary transmissions. The over-the-road rigs that ran between the home office and the jobsites were newer Macks, also with 5 x 4 transmissions. I learned to drive rigs with those types of transmissions. After I got laid off, a ranch family asked me to come stay with them. I agreed on condition that I 'work my board'. They had a custom combining outfit stuck on the Western Slop of Colorado, laid out by a hail storm, and a number of the hands had up and quit. I went to work on the combining outfit, cooking, servicing the combines, and driving grain trucks. This was my first experience driving the 'Roadranger' 13 speed transmissions.
On another later job, I was asked if I had a CDL, and even though I was hired as an engineer and asked to use my PE license, I was asked to drive straight tilt bedf jobs ( twin screw, Roadranger transmissions) to deliver diesel generators. I was still pretty cocky with the idea of being able to drive heavy trucks. At some point, the enormity of the matter finally seeped into me. Driving a heavy truck, I was in charge of a vehicle that had the potential to do a lot more damage and required a lot more knowledge and skill to handle than a passenger car or motorcycle. As I was taught back in Wyoming, driving a heavy truck meant constantly thinking 'way ahead', anticipating grades, curves, merges, cross winds, and reacting way ahead of the situations rather than more or less on top of them as people in cars might do. Things like looking at clouds, tree limbs, or flags on poles to get an idea of wind direction and speed which would act on a heavy truck and could affect stability or handling. Things like how a load was made up on the bed of the truck, how it was bound down, the resulting approximate center of gravity and axle loadings... Then, there is the matter of checking a rig over before getting in it and rolling down the road. How many car and pickup drivers go over their vehicles before each trip ?
As the years passed, I came to work at the New York Power Authority, and in time, bid into a job at a pumped storage hydro plant. Part of my responsibilities included looking after the fleet garage and a crew of mechanics. We had about 80 vehicles, from sedans to semis, as well as heavy equipment in the fleet. We also looked after the 'remote' hydroelectric sites. I was asked if I had a CDL, and from that point on, my employer paid to renew it. When the 'new' CDL came into force, I went through the training with the rest of the men. We only had to take the new written exams. I kept my license limited to 'articulated vehicles' with airbrakes, wanting no part of either tank vehicles or a 'Hazmat' endorsement. Mostly, I used my CDL to test drive heavy trucks, particularly when either repairs were needed, completed. Come the first days of spring weather, one of the truck mechanics who was something of a preacher in his church would call me, claiming he needed to test drive one of the line department's truck tractors. Of course, you can't test drive a truck tractor without hitching up a semi trailer, so we'd grab a loaded flatbed trailer to put some load on the truck tractor. Off we'd go, out the gate and out onto local roads. The preacher would have the windows down, just letting the smell of the earth and of spring in general blow thru the cab. We'd drive a piece, and he'd pull onto a drive-in, and we'd get us a couple of root beer floats. "Joe, he'd say- "Why'nt you take her back to the project and see if you feel or hear anything amiss..." So, I'd climb up into the driver's seat of a Freightliner conventional tractor and the preacher would kick back in the passenger seat and say: "Head for the barn, Joe". I'd wheel the rig through the security gate and onto the project roads, left forearm on the windowsill of the door, and head back to the fleet garage. I'd say I had not felt nor heard anything amiss, and we charged the time off to 'test driving' whatever the fleet number on the truck tractor was. The crew used to think it was way cool to have a boss who was a P.E., who could climb into a rig and drive it, or pick up a stinger and weld or do a variety of other things. Times changed and with various maintenance resource management software, you'd never get away with that kind of 'test driving'. Towards the end of my time with the Power Authority (I retired in 2013), I was by then a senior mechanical engineer and working down in the powerhouse. I happened up to the fleet garage and saw they had a fresh new truck tractor there. The mechanics ( a new crew, my old crew having retired or gone on to their rewards) showed me the new truck tractor. It had an automatic shifting transmission. Basically, it was a Roadranger air shift transmission, but it was coupled to a system that sensed load, road speed, and a number of other parameters and shifted accordingly. I sat in the cab and looked things over, and marvelled at this new system. Of course, the oldtimer in me had to ask the mechanics: "What happens if the software s--ts the bed or something goes haywire in the servos and shifter mechanisms ?" The answer was: "You are stuck", and the other answer was that they had to link up with the manufacturers to get things diagnosed to make repairs.
I think back to the old rigs I learned on, and to a buddy's 1963 Mack dump truck. 5 x 4 transmissions, no synchromesh, no air conditioned cabs, cabs as noisy as riding in a steel drum.... take both hands off the wheel to split shift, play the throttle and do it quick without grinding.... Another buddy has a couple of Ford pickups as his daily rides. One is an ancient stepside F-150 with 'three on the tree' (three speed manual transmission, shift lever on the steering column). The other is a 1970's F-250 4 x 4 with a 4 speed manual transmission. He has a manual choke on the older of the two pickups. His insurance company was asking him some questions about his pickups and said they offered a reduction in rates for 'theft deterrent systems'. My buddy said his old pickups had 'theft deterrent systems', and when asked about it, said one truck had two separate theft deterrent devices- the manual transmission and the manual choke. He said the cluck on the other end of the line from the insurance company was clueless as to what he was talking about.
Nowadays, in retirement, I keep up my CDL so I can use my buddy's dump trucks if I need a load of crushed stone for our driveway or they need a hand. I am not breaking the door down to climb up into the cabs of heavy trucks as I was when I was in my 20's. Older and wiser, I guess. I went to renew my driver's license and put it into the new 'holographic' form (pre Covid-19). Our local DMV is a friendly little place with one or two people working the counter. I handed in my paperwork for the changeover of my license, and remarked to the lady that I'd be giving up my CDL. She asked why. I said I did not use the CDL much, and did not want to keep up the medical. The lady looked at my record and said that since I'd had a CDL for over 20 years, if I did not mind a restriction limiting me to driving heavy trucks only within NY State, I'd keep my CDL. Fine with me, so I kept my CDL. Other than running a dump truck or moving a tractor and low boy with equipment on it locally, I do not see myself getting out on the highways with heavy trucks. I see the way a lot of the drivers of heavy trucks handle their rigs and the old notion of truckers being courteous or 'knights of the road' seems to be heading into extinction. Look at photos of truckers of the 30's into maybe the 50's: they often wore uniforms, some wore 'flat' military style hats when they came off the rigs, many wore neckties, and pants had a razor crease to them. Different era and different breed of truckers, for sure.
. I think they got most of it hauled off today, front end loader and a few dump trucks were running all day today, they winched trailer onto a lowboy as sun was setting.
