DHARMAPURI: Four vehicles were reduced to ashes on the Thoppur highway as a truck carrying loads of coconut oil caught fire and collided with three other vehicles including a container in the early hours of Sunday.
Police said a torres truck carrying coconut oil from Coimbatore to Hyderabad caught fire while trying to climb the Thoppur S-bend possibly due to the overheating of the engine induced by the steep slope.
Truck driver Sankaran immediately parked the vehicle and tried to extinguish the fire. But the fire could not be put out and soon the tyres burst because of which the truck parked on the steep slope came down on the reverse. The occupants in the vehicles behind jumped out and escaped before fire spread to other vehicles.
Later, five fire tenders struggled for over 3 hours to douse the flames. The accident disrupted traffic for over five hours.