Passenger car destroyed by fire on I-15 near Cedar Pocket

Toyota catches fire on northbound Interstate 15 near mile marker 20 in Mohave County, Arizona, June 5, 2020 | Photo courtesy of the Arizona Highway Patrol, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — A driver escaped injury when her vehicle caught fire on northbound Interstate 15 near mile marker 20 in Mohave County, Arizona after motorists began honking to alert the St. George resident to smoke that was seen billowing from the vehicle.

Toyota catches fire on northbound Interstate 15 near mile marker 20 in Mohave County, Arizona, June 5, 2020 | Photo courtesy of Beaver Dam-Littlefield Fire and Rescue, St. George News

Shortly after 4 p.m. MDT, officers and emergency personnel responded to northbound I-15 less than two miles north of the Cedar Pocket Exit on a reported vehicle fire involving a passenger car that was stopped on the right shoulder of the roadway in flames.

Arizona Department of Public Safety Trooper John Rogers told St. George News that fire crews from the Beaver Dam-Littlefield Fire Department arrived on scene and were able to extinguish the blaze, which by then had spread throughout the car, within a few minutes.

At the time of the incident, the driver told troopers she was heading north to her home in St. George when she noticed a number of motorists honking at her, he said, and “a few moments later, she noticed smoke coming from the front of the vehicle.”

She quickly pulled off the interstate onto a dirt pullout and saw that the car was on fire, he said, which is when she got out of the vehicle and fire crews arrived shortly thereafter.

According to authorities, the fire was started by “some unknown mechanical failure with the vehicle, Rogers said, adding the car “was a total loss.”

The driver was able to stop the vehicle well of the roadway, he said, with plenty of room for the fire trucks, which left traffic open on both sides of the interstate as crews tended to the scene.

The car was subsequently towed from the roadway and no injuries were reported.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

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