FIRE: SUDDEN BLAZE MELTS TRUCK

Connie Jeter knew it was not going to be the best Tuesday morning of his life when tendrils of smoke began filling the cab of his Chevy pickup on Interstate 55. Jeter, 69, of High Ridge, Mo., pulled over to the side of the northbound lane of the interstate, just south of mile marker 99. Within minutes, the fire was raging, melting the dashboard, charring the windshield, and liquefying parts of the engine.

A fellow motorist pulled over and attempted unsuccessfully to fight the blaze with a small fire extinguisher.

The flames proved stubborn even for the professionals a pumper truck from Cape Girardeau's Fire Station No. 2 arrived from a training exercise on Bloomfield Road and began fighting the fire that was obscuring the interstate with smoke.

Hose braced over his right shoulder, Fire Captain Ray Warner shot water onto the engine. The captain ordered flame-retardant foam sprayed across the vehicle.

"The main reason I wanted the foam down was so the fuel leaking out wouldn't ignite," said Warner. "It's a protection barrier, basically."

The fire apparently was sparked by a malfunction in the vehicle's transmission. Flames consumed part of the fuel line, sending transmission fluid and gasoline trickling onto the asphalt.

Warner said such engine fires are not uncommon, and seldom result in the vehicle exploding.

"That's a TV thing," he said.

Jeter had been hauling a stack of flatbed trailers to High Ridge, which lies about 110 miles northwest of Cape Girardeau. The trailers were not damaged by the blaze, which Cape Girardeau firefighters were able to eventually extinguish.

No injuries were reported.