Maricopa, AZ, August 6 2012 –Dinner was late for many Maricopa commuters as a fire in a travel trailer being towed southbound on SR 347 brought traffic to a complete standstill. The first notification by the Maricopa Fire Department was received via the Nixle notification system at 5:32 PM. By then, the effort to put out the fire and open the road to commuters was well underway.
One Maricopa resident had a front row seat to the drama and submitted both a written and a photographic account of what happened. Ashley Jane provided us with the following account:
“About 4:50pm, smoke began billowing out of the pre-fab home attached to a truck that had pulled over to the side of the road about 100yds north of Rancho El Dorado. Around 5:00pm, a police car had blocked all southbound lanes going into Maricopa. Fire crew showed up around 5:10pm. By then, thick black smoke was pouring out of the home and the fire crews got into place and battled the blaze for nearly an hour.
“Almost immediately, dozens of posts on Facebook appeared of folks stuck for the long haul. Some were mothers late to the celebratory dinner for their kids first day at school, others were wives anxiously waiting for their husbands to get home, and others in Maricopa sympathized with those of us who were stuck. I myself, was in the car with my husband and three kids ages: 5,4 and 2.
“Traffic was backed up for miles. In our car, we passed the time talking, singing, tossing a football and playing games on the iPod. I stepped out of my car at a few different times to snap photos. There was a guy who was sitting atop his pick-up, binoculars in hand, neighbors who were talking, an insurance lady was joking about running down to give them her card. The fire was finally out around 6pm. They cleared the debris that was in the left lane, and set up cones and began letting cars into Maricopa a few at a time, around 6:10pm. “
Photos taken by: Ashley Jane Photography
Story submitted by: House of Jane. www.facebook.com/houseofjanepr
So whats the story? Was there a homeless guy in the trailer smoking or what?
yeah there should be another way into copa,itsnot the first time this has happend, pepole are stuck for milesin there car, the only way i got home turnd back went through casa grande to longer but got home.
not good traffic for miles.