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Firefighters respond to gasoline tanker fire on Highway 60
----UPDATED 3 p.m. Thursday----
Butler County Firefighters spent six hours Wednesday night into Thursday morning containing a fire involving a 2019 Mack Conventional tanker truck hauling gasoline.
The accident occurred on Highway 60 near the Highway Z overpass and County Road 581.
According to Missouri State Highway Patrol reports, Terry J. Ehrhardt, 70, of Harrisburg, Illinois, who was driving the tanker truck, suffered minor injuries and was taken by ambulance to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center.
The second vehicle, a 2005 Ford F350, was driven by Tyler J. Gibbs, 23, of Elsinore. Gibbs was uninjured, troopers reported.
Patrol reports said the crash occurred as Ehrhardt’s vehicle struck the back of Gibbs' truck before traveling off the left side of the roadway and overturning.
A total of 17 county firefighters in six fire trucks responded at 7:26 p.m.
“We responded to a tractor-trailer rollover on fire,” according to reports from Butler County firefighters. “The (tanker) driver was out of the vehicle when we arrived.”
Gibbs’ vehicle was damaged from the wreck, but it didn’t catch fire, firefighters reported.
One firefighter said, “when I pulled up, the cab of the truck was on fire and the trailer also.”
The fire crew kept the area around the tanker contained and cool, they said.
Both eastbound and westbound lanes of U.S. Highway 60 were blocked as of 10 p.m. Wednesday, MSHP Sgt. Clark Parrott reported. By 10:40 p.m., one lane of traffic eastbound and one lane westbound had been opened.
Butler County and Stoddard County sheriff’s deputies diverted traffic onto Highway B while the road was closed. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources was contacted due to fuel coming from the top vent of the trailer. The Missouri Department of Transportation was also expected to respond to the scene and assist with traffic control and cleanup.