ST. GEORGE — A woman traveling east on Interstate 15 to Kansas City lost “everything she owned” when she escaped her Jeep Wrangler that burst into flames two miles from the Arizona border Friday morning, authorities said.
Firefighters say it was the second vehicle fire in the area in the last 48 hours and the third within the last month.
The fire, reported on the northbound I-15 around 8:15 a.m., backed up traffic to Mesquite with north I-15 at Arizona mile marker 2 shut down for 15 minutes.
Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District Chief Jeff Hunt said a woman driving a Jeep Wrangler, the only passenger, was detecting mechanical trouble in her vehicle.
“She was driving down the road and went to pass a semi and she said she just all of a sudden heard a pop. She tried to get to the shoulder, but the traffic wouldn’t let her over, and it was starting to smoke, so she just got as close as she could to the median and bailed out of it,” Hunt said. “And it just started ripping fire. It was a lady who was moving to Kansas City and had everything she owned in it.”
Smoke could be seen from miles away. At the site, when the fire was done, all that remained of the Wrangler was mostly metal frame, melted tires and charred metal. Hunt said it was a persistent fire.
“When we got there, we got a pretty good knockdown. Then we had a gas leak right underneath in the middle,” Hunt said. “We couldn’t get to it we just kept going from side to side. And all it was doing was just pushing the burning gas into the median.”
On Thursday, Hunt said they put out a vehicle fire in the same area that they kept confined to the engine department. A little further north, on Aug. 24, in the Virgin River Gorge, a semitractor-trailer carrying syrup burned away in a fire that also started in the engine.
Hunt said as the weather in the desert has cooled, there have been more vehicle fire incidents in the area.
“It’s been consecutive carbeques. We’ve had fewer fires — car fires and semi-fires — when it was hot than since it started cooling down,” Hunt said. “It started cooling down and we’ve had semi fires, car fires — it’s been going crazy.”
Photo Gallery
Jeep Wrangler burns on Interstate 15 two miles out of Nevada, Littlefield, Arizona, Sept. 22, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News Aftermath of Jeep Wrangler that burned on Interstate 15 two miles out of Nevada, Littlefield, Arizona, Sept. 22, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News Jeep Wrangler burns on Interstate 15 two miles out of Nevada, Littlefield, Arizona, Sept. 22, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News Aftermath of Jeep Wrangler that burned on Interstate 15 two miles out of Nevada, Littlefield, Arizona, Sept. 22, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News Aftermath of Jeep Wrangler that burned on Interstate 15 two miles out of Nevada, Littlefield, Arizona, Sept. 22, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News Firefighters look at the aftermath of Jeep Wrangler that burned on Interstate 15 two miles out of Nevada, Littlefield, Arizona, Sept. 22, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District, St. George News
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