A person died early Tuesday evening after a car left the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Hampden, crashed into trees and burst into flames. By 7:20, the scene was cleared and traffic was back to normal.

A person was killed early Tuesday evening after a car left the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Hampden, crashed into a set of trees and burst into flames, police said.

Credit: Courtesy of Russell Lanpher

The crash happened around the Hampden-Carmel town line early Tuesday evening and closed the southbound lanes to traffic, according to Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine State Police. Maine State Police called it a “fiery crash” in a brief Facebook post.

Traffic was flowing with delays in the northbound lanes after the crash, which was reported around 5:20 p.m. By 7:20 p.m., the fire was extinguished, the car was towed from the scene and traffic returned to normal conditions. Tire tracks were left in the grass to the side of the highway, and the trees in that area were all heavily burnt.

The crash happened near mile marker 176, which is 4 miles south of the Coldbrook Road exit serving Hermon and Hampden, and 2 miles north of exit 174 for Route 69 in Newburgh.

The fatal crash came less than a month after the April 3 death of Maine State Police Detective Ben Campbell on the same stretch of I-95 south. Campbell was killed in a freak accident at mile marker 179 while helping the driver of a disabled vehicle. He was struck by a wheel that separated from a logging truck trailer.