Wainui resident Glen McLean, who lives about 100m from the incident, said he was jolted awake by the loud “bang” of exploding tyres about 1.40am.
“We did not know at that stage they were the tyres, we just heard explosions.
“It woke a large portion of our neighbourhood up because the smoke was travelling across a significant amount of houses … I’d say around 50 houses were getting washed by the smoke.
“It was very shocking to be laying in bed and hearing the explosions and not knowing what it was. It was a little bit confusing. Once we got up, the fire services were there very quickly.”
The Mainfreight truck caught fire on SH1 near Silverdale about 1.30am, waking up nearby residents.
McLean drove to the other side of the motorway to inspect the incident, where more tyres exploded with “a toxic smell coming from the truck”.
“They were very loud. It was no joke … It could have been a much bigger explosion. In your mind you’re thinking [it’s a] 9kg LPG tank exploding, but it wasn’t.”
Tanker driver Cam Ferguson, who stopped to help the stricken driver, said the fire was burning fiercely.
“[The] driver had a tyre blow out which caused damage to the rear underside of the truck, causing the fire.
“He managed to get it off the road and attempt to extinguish it, but the fire, being rubber, relit after he emptied his extinguisher.”
Firefighters contain a truck fire on Auckland’s Northern Motorway. Photo / Hayden Woodward
He said the driver had tried to wave down other passing trucks, which didn’t stop.
“I was about five minutes behind and by the time I got there it was too far engulfed to attempt to use my extinguisher from my truck.”
Ferguson said “the driver did all the right things and did very well in the circumstances”.
“He’s a friend and work mate, so I stayed with him until we got the all clear and gave him a ride back to base in Whangārei.”
Mainfreight country manager Carl George said the truck driver was safe.
“The driver is okay and no others involved in the incident.”