Bitumen tanker fire brings Hamilton traffic to a halt

A fire aboard a bitumen tanker brought Hamilton rush-hour traffic to a standstill on a major thoroughfare this morning.

Vehicles backed up for more than a kilometre either side of the fire added to delays for emergency services getting to the crash.

A witness who attempted to put the fire out said he noticed smoke coming from an oncoming tanker.

"A bus went past this tanker then all of a sudden smoke was coming out of it and stuff was being blown into the air."

Insulation material and other debris from the Black Top Pavements tanker littered both sides of SH1 for about 200m.

"The truck stopped and I raced over with a fire extinguisher from my van. Another bloke stopped and together with the driver we unhitched the trailer and fought the fire," he said.

His partner rang 111 and tried to warn traffic.

"It seemed like ages to get an answer and it was really hard trying to get traffic to stop," she said.

A spokesman for Hamilton-based Black Top Pavements, Rhett Bishop, said he wasn't aware it was one of his company's vehicles.

"I was stuck in the line of traffic and did a u-turn so never realised it was one of our boys," he said.

The driver of the tanker was too shaken to speak at the scene of the accident but firefighters said he was a very lucky man.

- NZPA