Surprise Fire Call Shuts Down Interstate Exit In Temple, Texas

Heading to work this morning in Temple, Texas was greeted with a major delay and unforeseen detour as exit 301 on southbound Interstate 35 was closed without any advanced warning.

While traveling south over the hill at Nugent Avenue, was suddenly met with a congress of emergency lights, and Temple Fire and Rescue pumper truck blocking the off-ramp onto southbound General Bruce Drive for what looked like a semi trailer that had caught fire.

From time to time you may notice a vehicle catch fire while traveling the roads within the Lone Star State, but most of the time that fire is coming from the engine area of the vehicle. This fire appears began near the very rear of the trailer, and the tractor portion of the big rig was able to disconnect and pull away from the burning portion to limit the fire's ability to spread.

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Surprise Fire Call Shuts Down Interstate Exit In Temple, Texas

Noah/Canva

You can see exit 301 was closed right in front of of the Temple Motel 6.

Thankfully this fire was not nearly as tragic as when the tanker truck became fully engulfed on Interstate 14 almost exactly one year ago in April of 2023.

The fire call was made just before 3 AM according to TFD, and was extinguished by the time I arrived almost two hours later.

The investigation into the cause of the fire and the total damage is ongoing, and we will update this story as more information becomes available.