A semi-trailer truck burst into flames on Wednesday afternoon spilling thousands of lemons across Interstate 70 and causing massive traffic backups near Golden, Colorado.
The Colorado State Patrol reported the incident happened around 3:30pm and no one was injured. A cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
A Laramie resident who was visiting a relative in Boulder was stuck in the traffic behind the truck and told Cowboy State Daily it took more than two hours to get past the wreckage.
“It was awful,” Randy Peterson said. “I was almost out of gas and really needed to go to the bathroom. But thankfully the traffic started moving just in time.”
Peterson said he was able to visit a gas station before his “bladder exploded”.
“It was a close call,” he said.
Peterson said he tried to exit his car to pick up a burnt lemon as a souvenir but a Colorado State patrolman yelled at him to stay in his car.
“In retrospect, that was a bad decision,” he said. “That trooper was not in a good mood.”
He also said the scent of burning lemons was something he never experienced before.
“Actually it was a pretty decent smell,” he said. “I feel sorry for the driver but at least he wasn’t hauling cows or pigs.”
