A large fifth-wheel trailer that erupted into flames about 5 p.m. Friday, May 7 just north of Yachats was being towed by a 61-year-old man from Hayward, Wis., Oregon State Police said Friday.
Kenneth L. Prior was towing the trailer north on U.S. Highway 101 when the trailer’s right-side tires failed in Yachats, according to witnesses, and then the brakes or wheel bearings failed as he reached the north side of town. Prior did not notice and the overheated brakes then caught fire near Starr Creek Road.
The trailer erupted into a huge fireball, also igniting propane tanks. The fire burned brush and scrub trees along the highway but did not spread to another trailer and home on the property immediately to the east.
Firefighters were dispatched at 5:06 p.m. Firefighter/paramedics from Yachats Rural Fire Department were returning in the South Lincoln Ambulance from Newport and passed the burning trailer. They raced to the fire station just to the south, jumped on an engine and returned to the fire shortly after personnel from Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue arrived.
Because the fire was at the rear of the trailer, Prior was able to unhitch it from his truck. A cat died in the fire, said Osmo Larmi, a firefighter/paramedic with Yachats Fire. Prior, his wife and a dog were in the cab of the truck and were not injured.
