No injuries were reported in a trailer fire from Tuesday night located at 10 mile Glacier Highway, according to Capital City Fire/Rescue fire marshal Dan Jager.
CCFR responded to a call at approximately 9:10 p.m. in the 10700 block of Glacier Highway across from Auke Lake. According to a post on CCFR’s Facebook page, when crews arrived on scene, the 2019 Keystone Toy Hauler trailer was fully engulfed in fire and no one was occupying it or nearby at the time.
Jager said that while the cause of fire is still under investigation, it is known that it started somewhere within the trailer, burning hot enough to escape through the trailer to the outside, which then melted the valve on a residential-sized propane tank to the point of melting off, causing the tank to leak and creating a separate issue Jager said crews had to be mindful of.
“During the fire we actually had the propane tank light off,” Jager said. “We had to be careful about how we did our fire attack and keep spraying water on the tank to keep it cool so that way we didn’t have a bigger issue with heat, but also to try and burn off that fuel because the valve itself had melted, and we weren’t able to actually turn the tank off. So that’s what we were dealing with for most of this incident.”
According to Jager, the propane company arrived at the scene around 11:30 p.m. to shut the valve off, stopping the leak. The area is no longer considered to be hazardous. The trailer was not insured and has been determined to be a total loss as a result of the severity of the fire damage.
Jager said the fire’s location presented an additional challenge as crews were facing was having their fire apparatus downhill on slick conditions on Glacier Highway while also having to reduce traffic to a single lane.
“The police department was able to respond fairly quickly and take control, so we just want to pass on our thanks for the patience of anyone who was traveling on that stretch of road Tuesday night,” Jager said. “It wasn’t ideal, but everyone made it work, so we’re grateful for that.”
• Contact reporter Jonson Kuhn at jonson.kuhn@juneauempire.com.
