RV, semi destroyed in separate incidents

Occupants walk away from RV fire, semi-truck crash on U.S. 14A

Local first responders attended to a pair of serious highway incidents this week that left an RV and a semi tractor and trailer destroyed but occupants able to walk away from each scene with little or no harm.

Lovell volunteer firemen were called to a fire on U.S. Highway 14A around 22 miles east of Lovell on the west face of the Big Horn Mountains a mile and a half past the turnoff to Five Springs at 7:12 p.m. Thursday.

When firemen arrived, they found a Class C motorhome with a Freightliner chassis and front on fire, pulled off to the side of the road. The occupants had safely exited the vehicle, which was consumed by flames.

“The whole back half of the RV was engulfed,” Lovell Volunteer Fire Department captain Zach Blain said. “The couple was out, and they got some personal belongings out.”

Blain said the couple from Louisiana also managed to off-load a car they were pulling on a trailer behind the RV.

“They were hustling, I think,” Blain said. “He ran to get the car, and she was throwing personal belongings out of the camper before it got fully involved.”

Blain said the fire likely started with rear brakes that had overheated on the way down the mountain.

“My assumption is that the inside dual tire blew because of hot brakes,” Blain said. “He said he had to keep driving until he could get to a safe place to pull off the road.”

The RV stopped next to a gravel pit to the side of 14A.

Upon arrival, firemen discovered the RV totally engulfed by flames and jet-black smoke that soared above the rear portion of the motorhome. They applied a water and foam mixture, which is used when tires, oil and fuel are aflame, smothering the flames and making the water more effective by removing oxygen from the fire and leaving a coating to help prevent the fire from reigniting.

Blain said the owner of the RV had flown to California to pick up the new motorhome and driven it home to Louisiana. The couple was then driving to Cody Thursday and likely on to Yellowstone, Blain said, when the fire took place.

The fire was extinguished, and a wrecker was on the way to remove the RV about an hour and a half after the initial page when another call came in. Firemen were heading back down the mountain when, at 9:02 p.m., a call came in to respond to a one-vehicle crash above the RV fire in which a Chevy Suburban blew a tire and struck the rock wall on the highway.

According to the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office, a passenger from Powell was transported to North Big Horn Hospital by ambulance, and the driver, from Gillette, stayed at the scene for the investigation. A few firemen returned up the mountain to provide traffic control at the scene.

Semi crash

First responders returned to the west flank of the Big Horns early Tuesday morning when a semi tractor-trailer hauling bags of bentonite careened off a mountain curve and was left with the cab balancing on a Jersey barrier with a long drop-off below.

According to a press release from the Wyoming Highway Patrol, the Patrol was notified at approximately 2:35 a.m. of debris in the highway on U.S. 14A near mile marker 68, and when a Big Horn County sheriff’s deputy arrived, he discovered that a commercial motor vehicle had crashed near mile marker 71 above, 25 miles east of Lovell.

The flatbed trailer was left hanging off a Jersey barrier in the westbound lane over the edge of a steep hillside with the cab of the truck wedged on the Jersey barrier on the left side of the front axle with the right side off the barrier, the front pointing skyward.

Reports indicate that the driver was able to climb through the roof of the cab, with the sleeper compartment at least partially torn off. The trailer appeared to be wedged against a large rock outcrop below, which may have prevented it from sliding further down the mountain.

The crash site is 2½ miles past the Five Springs turnoff coming from the west, just below an overlook where drivers can stop to look over the Big Horn Basin.

According to the Highway Patrol release, the truck entered the curve at the site faster than the advised 35 mph. With the speed coming around the curve, the driver lost control, the truck tipped over, slid on the Jersey barrier and went over the edge.

Driver inexperience and speed are being investigated in the crash, the Patrol release stated.

Emergency responders were dispatched at 2:59 a.m., and the Lovell Volunteer Fire Department responded to help control the scene, staying on site until around 6 a.m., Captain Blain reported. The highway was closed to traffic, and Hanser’s Towing out of Billings was called to the scene. Blain said the driver working for Full Throttle Trucking and Repair was found at the scene suffering from cuts and abrasions, sitting on the side of the road.

Deputy Craig Shidler said Hanser’s used three large wreckers to pull the damaged truck and trailer off the steep cliff, and the highway was reopened just before 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Assistant Fire Chief Lynn Hitz confirmed Tuesday night that the Full Throttle truck was driving from a Bentonite Performance Minerals plant at Colony, Wyoming, to the BPM plant east of Lovell, where the load of Colony bentonite product would be shipped with product from the Lovell plant.

Habitat fire

Lovell volunteer firemen were also called to the Yellowtail Wildlife Habitat Unit last Wednesday evening, July 16, to battle a wildland fire between Pond 5 and the Kane Cemetery. Firemen spent about five hours at the site, from around 5 to 10 p.m., Blain said, and a Bureau of Land Management crew responded to control the blaze.