Fire on I-285

Thursday afternoon I was driving to Guitar Center along Atlanta's beltway (I-285) when I came upon an unexpected (and initially inexplicable) traffic jam. After a few minutes however, I was able to see the source of the traffic: some tractor-trailer had caught fire on the other side of the interstate, and the firefighters on the scene were working hard to put out both the fire on the truck and the resulting fire that had worked its way to the surrounding brush just off the highway. The smoke cloud emanating from the accident alone was enough of a spectacle to cause some serious rubbernecking, but I suppose the fire itself was the main culprit. Sure enough, as soon as I passed the accident, traffic sped up. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case for the poor drivers on the other side of the road, where traffic was backedup for a long way.

To my surprise, there didn't seem to be much of a news buzz about the story, so it was never really clear to me how all this happened, but I did hear that no one was injured. That said, I don't think there's anything wrong with admitting how awesome a sight the whole thing was, especially considering it's not the kind of thing you expect to ever see in your lifetime. Hell, even the dude in front of me was slowing down to take pictures of the fire, despite the fact we were in the fast lane! Crazy.