BELFAST, Maine — The cab of a tractor-trailer carrying frozen potatoes burned Wednesday afternoon in downtown Belfast, causing flames to shoot up toward power lines and acrid smoke to billow over the city.
“The truck is totaled,” Belfast Fire Chief Jim Richards said while clearing the scene near Penobscot McCrum’s freezer building on Front Street.
No one was hurt in the blaze, and the potatoes are fine, the chief said.
Richards didn’t know why the truck caught fire, but when he and his crew got to the scene at about 5:40 p.m., the cab was in flames.
“I worried about the overhead power lines,” he said.
The truck driver was inside the potato processing plant at the time of the fire.
The smoke and commotion lured bystanders to the fire, including Peter Rackliffe of Northport, who was shopping at the Belfast Co-op when he saw the smoke rising and got concerned about what was burning.
“We have a building in the family down here,” he said. “It was good that it was just a truck.”
Windham Veevaert, a sophomore at Belfast Area High School, ran to the scene with some friends.
“It’s pretty crazy,” he said.