Van bursts into flames and rolls down Huddersfield hill towards oncoming cars
A driver escaped from his burning truck rolling down a hill in Huddersfield towards rolling traffic. Around 4.30pm yesterday (November, 27) fire crews from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to a Scapegoat Hill following reports of a vehicle on fire. After arriving, they found the engine on a fire in a white truck with the flames then spreading rapidly.
An eyewitness said the driver of the van tried to extinguish the fire under the bonnet with buckets of water after asking residents at a house nearby for help. But the handbrake on the van failed and it began rolling down the hill, still on fire, and towards on coming traffic. Read more: ‘Beautiful’ little boy died after he was sent home from Yorkshire hospital ‘because there were no beds’
“He managed to get out OK and the fire spread through the cab but the pick-up then started to roll back down Slaithwaite Gate,” the eyewitness said. The driver ran down the road in front of the van and warned drivers stuck in queues. One vehicle managed to swerve out of the way before it hit a wall and came to a halt.
An eyewitness added: “Due to some quick thinking and evasive manoeuvres no one else was involved, with the coming to a stop on the banking before fire crews arrived to extinguish it.”
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service crews tackle burning pick up truck in Spacegoat Hill (Image: Submitted/Harry Hirst)
A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “This afternoon crews from Slaithwaite and Huddersfield were called to deal with a van on fire, at Scapegoat Hill. On arrival the fire which started in the engine had rapidly spread to the the crew cab. “Other vehicles driving up the road by all accounts had a lucky escape.
As the driver of the van tried to extinguish the fire under the bonnet with buckets of water from a near by house the handbrake failed and the burning van started to roll down the hill towards on coming traffic, due to some quick thinking and evasive manoeuvres no one else was involved, with the coming to a stop on the banking before fire crews arrived to extinguish it.”
No one was reportedly injured during the incident.
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