Hazardous Chemical Ignites in Branch County Semi Fire

Northbound I-69 was shut down for a few hours Friday morning in Branch County after a semi caught fire.

Michigan State Police troopers from the Marshall post responded to the highway near the weigh station in Ovid Township just south of Coldwater just after 4:30am when a FedEx semi had both of the trailers it was hauling catch fire.

Investigators learned that the double trailer was transporting nitric acid in both trailers. Authorities say that the brakes on the rear trailer caught fire, igniting the nitric acid.

The Lakeland Fire Department extinguished the fire with the Department of Environmental Quality’s HAZMAT team performing the clean-up. Northbound I-69 was reopened to one lane around 7am. The highway was fully reopened around 10:30am.

No one was injured.