By SCOTT REESE WILLEY

Hometown Press

The brakes on an 18-wheeler caught on fire early Saturday morning just south of Winnie and the flames spread to the cargo of hydrogen, forcing emergency response personnel to close down both lanes of Interstate 10 for several hours.No one was injured in the mishap.

The Winnie-Stowell Volunteer Fire Department, assisted by volunteer fire departments in Hamshire and Hankamer, responded to the fire around 4:15 a.m.

Saturday morning, Winnie-Stowell VFD Chief Lenard Bettis Jr. reported.

“Fortunately the driver had enough good sense to move the 18-wheeler off the Interstate and onto an exit ramp,” Bettis recalled. “He was traveling east on I-10 when he noticed his brakes were on fire but instead of pulling over on the shoulder of the highway he took the off ramp at (FM) 1410.

”Bettis said the driver attempted to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher but the blaze grew until it spread to the containers of hydrogen the truck was transporting.Once the cylinders became overheated their safety valves tripped and released the hydrogen to prevent the containers from exploding, Bettis explained.

The venting hydrogen caught fire and prevented firefighters from getting close to the truck, he said.

“When we arrived the cylinders were venting and you could hear the roar and see the flames shooting out,” Bettis said. “We couldn’t even get close to the truck. The safety valves worked exactly as they were designed and vented the hydrogen.”

He said east and west bound traffic was halted and drivers were detoured to other roads to bypass the potentially dangerous event.A hazardous materials personnel from the Baytown Fire Department arrived to assess the situtation and help battle the fire, Bettis said. A representative from the trucking company also arrived to assist, Bettis added.Eventually, when the hydrogen had vented enough and the roaring flames had diminished, emergency responders decided to turn off the valves releasing the gas, Bettis said.

“By 11 a.m. both the east bound and west bound lanes of traffic were reopened to the public,” he said.“Despite what people may have heard, the truck did not turnover and it did not explode. The safety valves worked exactly like they were designed to and released the gas into the atmosphere where it was burned off harmlessly.”