{"id":350234,"date":"2026-06-25T17:58:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/350234\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T17:58:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:58:28","slug":"lanes-cleared-after-18-wheeler-hauling-tomatoes-catches-fire-along-southwest-freeway-northbound-at-bellaire-hpd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/350234\/","title":{"rendered":"Lanes cleared after 18-wheeler hauling tomatoes catches fire along Southwest Freeway northbound at Bellaire: HPD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) &#8212; The aftermath of an 18-wheeler fire led to heavy delays along a portion of the Southwest Freeway on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/traffic.houstontranstar.org\/roadclosures\/#all\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Houston TranStar<\/a> reported the heavy truck fire just before midnight on I-69 northbound at Bellaire Boulevard, causing some right and center lanes to close. As of 11:40 a.m., the incident had cleared, and all lanes were reopened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Flames were visible coming from the big rig at around 3:30 a.m. A Houston Police Department officer told ABC13 the truck was hauling tomatoes and was headed toward New Jersey before it caught fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">HPD said a constable was driving on the opposite side of the freeway and reported seeing the fire spark on one of the back tires of the 18-wheeler. The officer said it appears the brakes locked up and caused the flames in the back part of the truck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">No one was injured, according to police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Authorities said TxDOT would be inspecting to see if the structure of the freeway was damaged.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Cleanup lasted several hours as crews worked to unload the tomatoes and prevent further spillage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc13.com\/traffic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Live traffic map<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) &#8212; The aftermath of an 18-wheeler fire led to heavy delays along a portion of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[124834,56,58,57,5206],"class_list":["post-350234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-124834","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-timely"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}