Towed vehicle catches fire on I-90

RITZVILLE – A vehicle caught fire three miles west of Ritzville on Interstate 90 as it was being towed by a motor home Wednesday afternoon, July 21.

Driving the motor home was Arnold Mott.

"We were driving down the highway when all of a sudden a lady pulled up beside me and said, 'Your car's on fire,'" a shaken Mott said as firefighters continued to soak the vehicle. "She said it was smoking, but it was hazy all over, so I couldn't tell. I pulled over behind her, and by the time we got back there, it was fully engaged in fire. Fortunately we were able to get the car unhitched, and pull the motor home pulled away before it caught on fire."

Mott said he got singed by the fire while unhooking the RV, and fell down, displaying a tangerine-size raspberry on his elbow.

"And so now we sit," Mott said.

The call for the fire went out at 2:24 p.m., with WSP posting an alert warning motorists of a vehicle fire with visible flames blocking the roadway.

"He's lucky he got that thing unhooked," Adams County Fire Protection District No. 1 Fire Chief Scott Kembel said.

Kembel was first on scene, in brush truck 1106, followed by brush truck 1104. He said the vehicle was too far gone to know what caused the fire.

"By the time we got there, it was fully engulfed," Kembel said. "It wasn't bad when we left town, but we got halfway out there, and she really started rolling, smoke wise. Oh, man, was it flaming."

Eight firefighters attended the scene, including Kembel and his assistant fire chief, Lindsey Lefevre; and Ritzville Fire Chief Joel Bell and his assistant fire chief Dave Breazeale.

Kembel's crew also brought their rescue rig.

"That's where we've got our tools, so we took that along. We had to cut the hood off to get into the engine compartment," Kembel said. "We've got all our good tools in that thing -- our toy box."

Both lanes of the interstate were closed while the fire was subdued.

"Some good Samaritan blocked both lanes for us, so we could get hoses out and do our thing," Kembel said, explaining a driver parked diagonal on the highway and helped stop traffic.

"There were people driving right through that stuff. There were flames and smoke, and they're driving right through it. Can't slow down," Kembel said. "It did jump the road and catch some of the median on fire, so we had grass fire too. But we were back to the station within the hour. The golden hour."

The vehicle was towed to Ritzville by Pete's Towing, arriving shortly after 4 p.m.

Mott said the couple was on their way from Moses Lake to Spokane.

"We're on our way to spend time with our son in Montana, for his birthday," Mott said.