Truck fire near Tokoroa closes one lane of State Highway 1

Tokoroa firefighters have managed to extinguish a truck fire near the town this morning. Photo / Supplied by Waldo Andersen

A truck carrying a load of bark erupted into flames while travelling on the country's busiest highway.

Fire and Emergency northern communications shift manager Megan Ruru said the truck was fully ablaze when firefighters arrived at the scene on State Highway 1 just north of Tokoroa just after 11am today.

Cambridge man Waldo Anderson was heading north through the town when he spotted black smoke in the distance and a fire engine following him in the distance.

Expecting a house fire, he was surprised to see the truck, which had been heading south, fully ablaze. He arrived just before firefighters to capture images of the truck's trailer engulfed in an inferno.

"It looked like they managed to disconnect the trailer and let it roll back a bit because it wasn't connected to the truck.

"It was just tyres exploding, bits of stuff flying out of the engine basically, bits of shrapnel, it was just engulfed. It was burning the hedge on the side."

Fire crews got the fire out pretty quickly, he said.

The road was restricted to one lane as fire crews worked to extinguish the fire.