Merritt RCMP say they’re being called to investigate more and more semi-truck fires on the Coquihalla in recent years.

Corporal Brock Hedrick says they often happen outside of the Merritt Fire Department’s response area, which means that it is the Ministry of Transportation’s responsibility.

“From my experience, even when we do have vehicle fires that cause subsequent brush fires or forest fires, I’ve seen it where they send out a helicopter and they put out a brush fire first. If they have availability, they’ll put some water on the actual vehicle fire. It’s outside of our purview, that’s up to the Ministry of Highways and the province of B.C.,” Hedrick says.

“We’re dealing with, it seems, like more of them. I don’t have the stats right in front of me. But it seems like we’re dealing with them more and more of them. And unfortunately it does shut down the highways at times, and that’s something that obviously the province or the Ministry of Highways would have to look into further.”

Hedrick was commenting after a truck fire about eight kilometres north of Merritt last week. The Coquihalla was closed northbound for five hours while the truck burned, and it was partially closed for more than a full day.

Police think the truck fire started in its engine. The truck was reportedly carrying toilet paper.

(Photo: Kayleigh Milobar)