Sullivan Fire Department was initially dispatched to a semi trailer fire located on EB I-44 at the 225 mile marker about 6:30 am on January 25th. By the time the crew of Pumper 854 went into service responding from Station Five, Washco advised them the semi driver had relocated to the Flying J Truckstop just a quarter mile from the fire station. Firefighters arrived soon after and with flames showing at the rear of the trailer, advised they had a Working Fire. I arrived a few minutes later and found firefighters had knocked down the flames and the pup trailer was heavily smoking in the parking lot near the street…

Firefighters opened the door of the pup trailer to ascertain if fire had penetrated the floor of the trailer, determining soon after that it had not….

…while Captain Dave and Engineer Gary were checking the trailer interior, Firefighter Davey Sumpter continued to cool down the trailer brakes, which were believed to be the cause of the fire….

Captain Dave and Davey double-checked the brakes and bottom of the trailer with the heat seeking camera as well….

The sun was beginning to rise and the temps seemed to get colder out here, Chief Eric arrived and checked with Maintenance to see about getting some salt on the water flowing out into the street to prevent any accidents from happening….

Within the next hour, firefighters were able to cool the brakes down quite a bit and placed the alarm under control.