A major catastrophe was averted along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Friday, when a driver of a truck loaded with LPG cylinders drove the vehicle to a deserted place on the road soon after realising that it had caught fire.
Three fire tenders doused the fire in less than an hour, said Udhampur Deputy Commissioner Piyush Singla, adding that they had also approached the Indian Air Force to keep its choppers on standby for carrying out firefighting operations in case of fire spreading to nearby forests.
Except for the truck and the LPG cylinders, there was no other damage to property in the fire, he said, adding that vehicular traffic too was restored on the national highway.
