An 18-wheel rig carrying 6,000 live chickens caught fire on Interstate 10 eastbound about 12:15 Wednesday afternoon. An estimated 2,000 chickens died and four thousand survived.
Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Stephanie Davis said the Texas Animal Commission come to the scene to assist.
Orange Fire Department Captain Randy Ener said the truck rig had a tire blow out and catch fire. The fire spread under the trailer carrying hundreds of cages with the chickens.
Ener said another motorist saw the flames and flagged the driver to pull over. The driver was not hurt.
Firefighters couldn’t get the chicken cages off the truck because of the way they were loaded, Ener said. The firefighters couldn’t let the chickens loose to run around the interstate, he added.
After the fire was put out, the trailer was towed to Gilbeaux’s Towing Service yard off Highway 62. Captain Ener said the company that owned the chickens was sending someone to go to the yard and load the cages with the surviving birds onto another trailer.
The accident was by Mile Marker 871 near the Orange County Appraisal District office. Traffic on the interstate was backed up for about two hours while the fire was extinguished and the site was cleaned.
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