Trailer Full of Hershey’s Chocolate Goes Up in Flames in Iowa

The semi was traveling westbound on I-80, from Pennsylvania. Near Dexter, the driver pulled over on a grassy surface, after noticing that smoke was coming from the trailer. He had just enough time to unhook the cabin from the trailer, before the latter caught fire.

According to reports, the driver had already complained about issues with the brakes. It is believed the fire started from the faulty brakes, and the driver is being praised for his quick thinking (and just as quick acting) in unhooking the trailer from the cabin.

Though the cabin wasn’t affected by the fire, the trailer – and its entire delicious load – was consumed by flames. How’s that for a giant cup of hot chocolate?

This isn’t the first incident involving a trailer carrying chocolate that makes headlines around the world. Granted, the chocolate does nothing to diminish the magnitude of these events, which end up costing taxpayers a lot of money and authorities many hours of hard work, to clean up the mess.

In May this year, for instance, a truck full of chocolate overturned in Poland, and its entire content spilled on the highway. It took authorities many hours to clean it up, with traffic coming to a stop in all directions for a couple of hours.

Firefighters used hot water to melt the chocolate that had dried and stuck to the asphalt, and then a bulldozer to gather it up. The chocolate had spread for many miles from the crash site, so firefighters had their work cut out for them.

It was a messy operation, but the silver lining was that the 60-year-old driver wasn’t harmed in the accident. There were no other injuries reported either.