A fire in the tractor unit of a truck with a semi-trailer forced to completely close the A 9 at the border for about an hour early this Wednesday morning and complicated traffic between Catalonia and France. The incident occurred around 00:45 in the customs sector of the A 9, already in French territory.
The vehicle was able to stop on the shoulder and the driver escaped unharmed. According to 112, the fire affected the tractor unit and part of the textile and cardboard load that the truck was transporting.
Joint intervention in the customs area
To the scene, four units of the Firefighters of the Generalitat were dispatched, who worked alongside the French personnel to extinguish the flames. Around 1:15 AM, the fire in the cabin was already extinguished, but the intervention lasted for several hours due to the impact on the merchandise.
The firefighters then continued with the removal of the material from the box, damaged by the smoke and partly by the fire. The personnel were extracting the load and extinguishing the active hotspots that kept appearing inside the trailer.
Traffic jams on the AP 7 and partial reopening
The fire forced a total interruption of traffic at the border, on the French side. Later, traffic could be partially reopened, although the incident left complications in the direction of France both on the AP 7 and on the A 9 itself.
In the Catalan road network, traffic jams of about two kilometers were recorded on the AP 7, while on the A 9, problems were concentrated in the area of the Les Cluses customs office. The complete extinction of the fire was not considered finished until around 7:00 in the morning.