JASPER COUNTY - Many frozen Bagels got toasted prematurely Sunday night on I-65 when a semi's brakes caught fire. Indiana State Police Public Information Officer Sergeant Ann Wojas says it happened at about 5:40 p.m. in Jasper County.
Police say Trooper Mason Wiley, from the Lafayette District, who was off-duty saw a semi on I-65 that was smoking heavily from its rear axle that caught fire.
Wiley was south bound on I-65, approximately 6 miles south of the Rensselaer exit.
He turned around in the cross over on I-65 and stopped the semi on the right shoulder at the 209 ½ mile marker. Wojas says by that time the brakes on the semi-trailer were on fire and spreading to the trailer itself. The driver failed to release the brakes causing them to spark fire. The rear tires exploded due to the heat from the brake fire.
The driver, 31-year-old Quiner Louis, of Boynton Beach, Florida, who was driving a 2013 Freightliner, owned by Balkan Logistics Group out of Countryside, Illinois, and loaded with 38,000 pounds of frozen bagels, was able to disconnect the tractor from the trailer.
The fire department was able to extinguish the trailer fire. The right lane was closed until approximately 1:00 a.m., for removal of the trailer and clean-up of the roadway.
