Heat-warped wreckage. The truck was entering Dakota on County Road 12, which comes off the bluffs as Apple Blossom Scenic Drive and which enters Dakota as Center Street. Image: Leif Solum
Driver guided truck to shoulder, unhurt
DAKOTA, Minn. — An 18-wheeler caught fire under an Interstate 90 bridge at this town along the Mississippi River. The driver steered the flaming rig to the shoulder and escaped unhurt. Because heat from the fire may have damaged the bridge structurally, the eastbound lanes of I-90 were closed 3-1/2 hours. I-90 was reopened after highway engineers were satisfied that damage to the bridge and the pavement was minimal. The accident was about 2 :30 p.m. Ben Klinger, the Winona County emergency management director, said the fire erupted in the truck’s engine compartment. The trailer, loaded with sugar, burned so intensely that the unit buckled. Traffic on eastbound I-90 lanes was backed up on Four Mile Grade in the Dakota Creek coulee to Nodine on the blufftop. Traffic also backed up on combined U.S. Highway 14 and 61 from Winona. Detours were set up on other streets through Dakota and on back roads up other coulees.