Mildura wine lost in truck crash fireball

Hundreds of bottles of wine were destroyed after a truck burst into flames on an Australian motorway this morning.

Credit: Berowra Fire and Rescue

The  truck is believed to have contained hundreds of bottles of red wine and sparkling wines from one of Victoria’s best known wine regions, Mildura, according to a report by Australia’s Daily Telegraph.

The truck caught fire shortly after 8am on the M1 Pacific highway just north of Sydney, with up to 35 firefighters called into control the blaze which was described as a “major job” by district services co-ordinator from Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Rural Fire Brigade Peter Marshall.

The driver, who had attempted to extinguish the blaze himself before calling the emergency services, escaped with minor burns.

Marshall, told the paper that the driver had sustained minor scalding burns after trying to remove personal items from the cab.

Courtesy of @ctc_communications via Twitter

He said: “He made attempts to pull over to the left and tried to self extinguish.”

“He was treated on scene for minor burns.”

Firefighters spent seven hours this morning clearing the debris from the motorway with traffic said to be backed up by several kilometres.