An evening cleaning trailers in a parking lot in Amherst, N.S., quickly turned dangerous after a trailer containing a pressure washer burst into flames and burned through three other transport truck trailers and a pickup truck before it could be put out.
It all started Monday evening around 8 p.m. in the parking lot of Gordon Food Service at 38 Industrial Park Dr. according to a news release sent out by the town.
No one was injured in the blaze.
By the time firefighters arrived, three of the trailers were already burning out of control.
"All three were fully involved.They all had flames coming out of various spots within the trailers," said Amherst fire chief Greg Jones.
A contractor hired by Gordon Food Service to clean the trailers was inside one when a small trailer containing the pressure washer he was using caught fire. A truck driver saw the flames and told the cleaner to get out.
The fire quickly spread to three 16-metre-long trailers and a pickup truck towing the trailer with the pressure washer, all of which were destroyed.
Three other transport truck trailers were also damaged in the fire.
"The biggest issue was the close proximity of the trailers. It's not uncommon in a yard where there would be numerous trailers that are being stored just prior to being used, for them to be parked that close. And the proximity of the trailers, unfortunately, gave opportunity to the fire to quickly jump from one to another," said Jones.
But Jones said the damage could have been a lot worse had workers with Gordon Foods not moved some of the other trailers out of the area before they could catch fire.
The exact cause of the fire is under investigation.
It took 46 firefighters around 20 minutes to put out the blaze.