Traffic Slowed as Truckload of Cardboard Burns

A tractor-trailer loaded with cardboard burst into flames on southbound Interstate 5 during rush hour Monday, backing commuters up to Mission Viejo for hours as firefighters doused the smoldering rig.

No one was injured in the rush hour blaze, which blocked two lanes of traffic and the freeway’s Ortega Highway off-ramp for more than four hours Monday.

Jose Mendoza Sanchez, 37, was hauling the flatbed load of stacked cardboard for the La Puente-based Orange County Container Corp. when the load started to smolder at 8:24 a.m., said California Highway Patrol Officer Bruce Lian, who happened to be behind the rig on his way to work.

“I saw him start to burn and I thought he had a brake fire or something,” Lian said. “His whole load was burning really good. Firefighters had to tear it all apart and break it down and get down under it.”

The smoldering load backed up traffic as firefighters doused the cardboard and California Department of Transportation workers cleaned the soggy, shredded mess off the freeway shoulder and off-ramp.

About $10,000 worth of corrugated cardboard was destroyed in the fire, according to CHP officials.

Mendoza Sanchez managed to detach the tractor from the flatbed trailer and pull it away from the fire onto the freeway shoulder, Lian said.

The Orange County Fire Authority dispatched six engines and more than 20 firefighters to the scene.

Cardboard can easily smolder and reignite if not properly doused, so firefighters had to soak the cardboard long after the flames were controlled, Orange County Fire Authority spokeswoman Emmy Day said.