A semi truck, the six cars it was hauling and 15 acres burned Sunday because of a “mechanical failure,” Utah Highway Patrol officers told the Millard County Chronicle Progress.

The car hauler semi combusted about 20 miles north of Fillmore on I-15, going north. The mechanical failure caused a trailer with four of the cars to catch on fire, UHP Sgt. Greg Kelsey said. “A couple of cars” were on the truck, UHP trooper Andrew Battenfield said.

The right lane of two lanes on the highway going north was closed as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday, when fire crews were still “working the median” and “mopping up hot spots” of the road. A trooper was also still on the scene. It was unknown when the closed lane was expected to re-open, Battenfield told the Chronicle Progress.

Utah Highway Patrol responded to a call at 8 a.m. Sunday. The driver was able to separate his tractor from the trailer. The fire, which tore through grass, according to Good4Utah, spread to the adjacent hillside, but winds were able to keep the fire on the side of the road and fire crews were able to contain it, Kelsey said. Northbound lanes were “affected” until 9:30 a.m., Battenfield said. Southbound lanes stayed open, according to Good4Utah.

Kelsey said all the cars were “destroyed.”

Local fire crews from Fillmore and Kanosh, federal wildland fire crews, UHP troopers and Millard County Sheriff’s Officer deputies, with assistance from the Utah Department of Transportation Cove Fort office, helped with the lane closures, Kelsey said.

Rhett Wilkinson, staff reporter