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A truck carrying fireworks hit a moose near Wawa, Ontario, early Friday morning, shutting down the Trans Canada Highway for five-and-a-half hours and creating an impressive fireworks display as the truck burned.

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At about 1 a.m. on Friday morning, a truck reportedly carrying goods for Purolator, including fireworks, struck a moose about 40 kilometres outside the town of Wawa. The fuel tanks on the truck ruptured causing a large blaze.

The driver and a passenger in the truck were unharmed, the Wawa-news reported, though they escaped with just the clothes on their backs.

Firefighters put out the fire by using pumps to draw off water from beside the highway, though the truck burnt for long enough that the fireworks it was carrying were set off and lit up the early morning sky.

“Most of the fireworks reached straight for the sky,” Brenda Grundt reported for the Wawa-news. “However, several headed towards Mijin Lake, and others must have given the firefighters quite a start as they detonated just above the fire trucks, and in one case almost seemed to strike the truck.

There was nothing left of the truck after the fire but a metal frame.

Grundt makes clear that the moose threat is not over.

“There were two moose involved in vehicle collisions last night,” she writes. “Wawa-news saw five moose this morning, four on the way to the fire, and one crossed directly in front of the truck as we went back to Wawa.”

At this time, it is unclear what the fate of the moose struck by the truck was. Wawa is about 200 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie.