The UIPD and Urbana Fire Department responded to a call of a pickup truck on fire near the intersection of Green and Wright streets Friday morning. Officers reported that the truck was unoccupied when it caught fire.
Countywide dispatch first made the call at 10:21 a.m., reporting a vehicle fire. According to an officer on the METCAD scanner, over two dozen calls then came in to report the incident.
A few minutes later, UIPD informed an officer to divert traffic from the intersection at Sixth and Green streets, and at 10:26 a.m., an officer reported that the truck’s gas tank exploded.
Following the explosion, UIPD said on the scanner that the incident was now “nothing more than a truck fire.”
At 10:30 a.m., UIPD allowed traffic on Green Street heading east and west. UIPD opened northbound traffic on Wright Street at 10:48 a.m. Police units cleared just after 11 a.m., when a Tatman’s Towing truck removed the vehicle from the scene.
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The initial cause of the fire remains unclear.
