{"id":384889,"date":"2026-01-03T05:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T05:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/384889\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T05:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T05:25:18","slug":"big-rig-fire-halts-traffic-on-interstate-5-near-smf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/384889\/","title":{"rendered":"Big rig fire halts traffic on Interstate 5 near SMF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA big rig fire put up a thick cloud of black smoke and snarled traffic on some lanes of Interstate 5 on Friday afternoon. The fire could be seen on the traffic cameras around 4 p.m. on southbound I-5 near Airport Boulevard. Caltrans cameras showed a thick plume of black smoke rising from the big rig, with flames coming from the truck&#8217;s load. Before emergency vehicles arrived, some drivers appeared to continue through the thick smoke. By 4:30 p.m., the flames appeared to be put out, and smoke had dissipated for the most part. The trailer appeared to be charred and heavily damaged. KCRA 3 reporter Peyton Headlee was at the scene and said traffic was down to one lane in that section of the interstate.LiveCopter 3 was over the freeway, where traffic remained congested in the area around 5 p.m.California Highway Patrol logs indicate the big rig was hauling a heavy load of rice. KCRA has reached out to several agencies for more information. Follow the latest traffic updates here. See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it\u2019s safe to do so at kcra.com\/upload.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tSACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>A big rig fire put up a thick cloud of black smoke and snarled traffic on some lanes of Interstate 5 on Friday afternoon. <\/p>\n<p>The fire could be seen on the traffic cameras around 4 p.m. on southbound I-5 near Airport Boulevard. <\/p>\n<p>Caltrans cameras showed a thick plume of black smoke rising from the big rig, with flames coming from the truck&#8217;s load. <\/p>\n<p>Before emergency vehicles arrived, some drivers appeared to continue through the thick smoke. <\/p>\n<p>By 4:30 p.m., the flames appeared to be put out, and smoke had dissipated for the most part. The trailer appeared to be charred and heavily damaged. KCRA 3 reporter Peyton Headlee was at the scene and said traffic was down to one lane in that section of the interstate.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\" aspect-ratio-16x9 lazyload lazyload-in-view\" alt=\"i-5 big rig fire\" title=\"i-5 big rig fire\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/i5-semi-fire-from-peyton-695864f2a19d3.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>LiveCopter 3 was over the freeway, where traffic remained congested in the area around 5 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>California Highway Patrol logs indicate the big rig was hauling a heavy load of rice. <\/p>\n<p>KCRA has reached out to several agencies for more information. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kcra.com\/traffic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Follow the latest traffic updates here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it\u2019s safe to do so at <a target=\"_blank\" data-stringify-link=\"http:\/\/kcra.com\/upload\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" href=\"http:\/\/kcra.com\/upload\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">kcra.com\/upload<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | <a target=\"_blank\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/get-kcra-news-on-the-go-download\/44039145\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/get-kcra-news-on-the-go-download\/44039145\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Download our app<\/a> | <a target=\"_blank\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/subscribe\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/subscribe\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | <a target=\"_blank\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@KCRA\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@KCRA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A big rig fire put up a thick cloud of black smoke and snarled traffic on some lanes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[187413,11357,187410,187412,95925,4,450,10529,18276,451,19085,18413,16601,44593,18900,3,187411,187414,18898,18901,452,453,2987,35846,185033],"class_list":["post-384889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-airport-boulevard","tag-app","tag-big-fire-fire","tag-big-rig-fire","tag-black-smoke","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-com","tag-download","tag-headlines","tag-i-5","tag-interstate","tag-kcra","tag-load","tag-more-coverage","tag-news","tag-smf","tag-southbound-i-5","tag-subscribe","tag-top-california-story","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-traffic","tag-upload","tag-vehicle-fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}