Kaleden firefighters put out mysterious truck blaze

PENTICTON – Kaleden firefighters spent a frigid morning battling a stubborn truck fire.

A Dodge Ram pickup was fully engulfed in flames on Highway 3A about three kilometres south of the Highway 97 intersection near Kaleden when firefighters arrived on scene around 6:40 a.m., Jan. 17, but no driver could be found.

Kaleden fire chief Darlene Bailey says the pickup had been left near a driveway and abandoned. A nearby resident thought she saw someone leaving in another vehicle, but couldn’t be sure. RCMP are investigating.

Firefighters fought the blaze on a steep, curving section of Highway 3A in cold, windy conditions, which also resulted in some icing on the highway as water flowed across the road and froze. Argo Road Maintenance was called to sand the area down after the fire was extinguished.

“We were trying to keep water off the road which was difficult. As we got the fire under control, we had to shut the highway down for a short period of time, as smoke conditions were so bad visibility was almost nil,” Bailey says.

A substance, believed to be magnesium, appeared to fuel a fire under the vehicle’s dashboard and it proved very stubborn to put out, Bailey says. The department used over 2,000 gallons of water on the blaze.

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