New Waverly Firefighters were first called just after 7 pm Tuesday night to reports of an 18 wheeler on fire in the northbound lanes of I 45. The first crews on scene found that the truck was loaded with tires and its cargo was heavily involved in fire. The truck was near the New Waverly weigh station, just inside Walker County and the fire was blocking all northbound lanes.
Due to the sheer number of tires burning, additional crews from Walker and Montgomery County were requested to assist. Firefighters from North Montgomery County, Huntsville, Dodge, Montgomery and Caney Creek responded, and the Needham Fire Department responded with a Rehab unit as firefighters worked for nearly 2 hours to fully extinguish the fire.
Firefighters set up portable tanks on the northbound lanes and shuttled water to the scene with tanker trucks. Heavy traffic in the area as well as passing rains made for difficult conditions but the fire was brought under control around 9 pm.
DPS and Law Enforcement from both Walker and Montgomery Counties worked to keep traffic moving, but the lack of alternative routes and pre-holiday traffic soon led to gridlock on both I 45 and Hwy 75 between Willis and New Waverly. Savvy local residents monitoring social media alerts put out by the New Waverly Fire Department were able to divert at Willis and traveled alternates such as FM 1097 and Rogers Road to bypass the incident, but traffic remained heavy in the area till near midnight as the cleanup continued well into the night.
