The southbound carriageway of the M18 motorway in Co Clare was closed for over an hour this evening after the cab of an articulated lorry burst into flames.
The incident occurred shortly after 9.00pm at Derrygarriff close to the Tubber Road flyover on the M18 just north of junction 15 at Crusheen.
The driver of the lorry managed to bring his vehicle to an emergency stop in the hard shoulder but partially in lane 1. The driver escaped from his cab safely.
Units of Clare County Fire and Rescue Service from Ennis station along with Galway Fire and Rescue Service crews based in Gort were mobilised to the scene along with Gardaí.
The southbound lanes were quickly closed while fire crews set about tacking the blaze with foam. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus battled for some time to extinguish the fire which was confined to the cab and prevented from spreading to the trailer. It’s not known what the truck was transporting.
About an hour after emergency services arrived at the scene, it was safe enough to open one lane of the carriageway to traffic. Fire crews set up and emergency traffic management (EMS) system and opened lane 2.
The carriageway was fully reopened shortly before 2.00am.
