As I ran to get the fire extinguisher, I was thinking what kind of fire this is. 

It is a grease fire!  

The fire-extinguisher should be able to put it out!  

Instincts kicked into high gear now!  

Get the fire extinguisher!

I never used fire extinguisher before, hoping I could just figure it out, can’t be that hard, right?

I ran back to my truck and opened my driver's side door to pull the latch releasing the lock to open the side box behind driver's side door that held supplies.  I yanked at the fire extinguisher, which was kind of buried under a gallon of Radiator Coolant and jumper cables.  Thankfully there wasn’t too much stuff burying it and I was able to grab it quickly.   As I was running to the back of the trailer, I tried squeezing the handle, nothing happened???

I then remembered, take pin out dummy!  

By this time, I was no longer concerned with the oncoming traffic.  Get fire put out was the only thing on my mind.

I grabbed the pin and pulled it out, by this time I was already under my trailer just 2 feet away from the inside of my flaming rim and brakes.  The flames were dancing even higher now, licking up dangerously close to the tire. If that tire caught on fire, there would be no chance of putting the fire out and the whole trailer would go up in flames and I was under a load being delivered to Kansas City, KS.

I pulled the trigger and pointed the nozzle at the fire while squeezing the handle. 

"I never used a Fire Extinguisher Before.... "

Within nine seconds it stopped spraying! 

Was that it? 

Was it out?

There was nothing left in the fire extinguisher, and I was hoping the flames wouldn’t reignite!

I thought this fire extinguisher must’ve been low on chemical or whatever is in it!   Only later to find out that about 9-10 seconds is all there is !  

I quickly ran back to my truck turned it on and started driving down breakdown lane proceeding fast enough to create a cold draft on red hot brakes and rim to cool it down faster, yet not fast enough to get back into traveling lane of highway.  Proceeding down the road at 40 miles an hour hoping that the 20° weather outside and the cool air flowing around would be enough to cool it off, but fast enough not to allow it to start flaming again, because the brakes and other metal parts inside that rim were still red hot.

As I got back in my truck and started to roll, I called the owner of the company, no answer.   I called the other owner of the company, no answer.  Left message on their voicemail.  Then I tried to call my dispatcher, no answer, then I tried the overnight dispatch system, no answer!

I called operations manager, no answer!  Having never been in this kind of situation before, all I could think was why is no one answering their phone?  

Finally, I got a call back from my dispatcher and told him what was happening.  I told him I would call back after I got to the TA down the road 20 miles, I had already started planning where I should go using my truckerpath app on my phone. Then a call came in from my operations manager Alesandra.  She told me find a place that’s safe to pull over off the road.  I said that I was already on it.

 I told her I was going to drive to the TA TruckStop 20 miles down the road and get off at exit 10 off I 70 in Ohio, just so she would know where I was.

As I was approaching the exit, I decided to stop and make sure that the fire had in fact gone out and it wasn’t still burning prior to pulling into TA , worst-case scenario if the trailer tire was still on fire, I could just Dis-attach truck from trailer and save the Truck from burning as well, thankfully the fire was out, so I continued on to the TA, at which time I just got a call back from my dispatcher. He said fire is out.  Great then you can just keep driving!

I said, “no, I don’t think so”

 I parked away from other trucks as a precautionary measure and went into the TA shop to talk to the manager at the desk. I told her what had happened, and she confirmed it wasn’t a good idea to continue driving