Firefighters battled a large motorway fire yesterday after a lorry carrying gas cylinders burst into flames.
A major incident was declared after a lorry carrying 11 gas cylinders caught fire on the M6 on Wednesday afternoon (July 22).
Drivers were subjected to long delays as the M6 near Lymm was closed as the fire service dealt with the blaze.
Seven fire engines were present on the M6 southbound as number of firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze which took hold of the vehicle between junctions 19 and 20, near the Lymm Interchange, reported Cheshire Live.
Despite the scale on the fire, nobody was injured in the incident.
A Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: "Two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used a hose reel jet to fight the fire from a safe distance.
"A decision was taken to allow the cylinders to gas off.
"Specialist mats were used to stop water and fuel from the maintenance vehicle entering the motorway's drains.
"Firefighters managed to extinguish the fire and cool down the cylinders."
Both sides of the motorway were reopened by 4.50pm, though the first two lanes of the southbound carriageway were initially fended off.
An engineer confirmed that the cylinders were free of gas and safe at around 6.45pm.
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Firefighters made sure that the motorway maintenance vehicle was safe before it was recovered, checking its temperature with a thermal imaging camera.
Firefighters were in attendance for around five hours.
The motorway fully reopened a short time later
