A truck carrying 44,000 pounds of chickpeas caught fire as it drove through Death Valley National Park in California last month, park officials said Friday.
The truck was traveling along Daylight Pass and Mud Canyon Road, which is closed to commercial truck traffic, when the brakes overheated, causing the truck to become stuck. catch fire around 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 21, the National Park Service said.
The truck driver eventually stopped when he reached level ground on CA-190, officials said. Multiple agencies responded to the fire and no injuries were reported.
Death Valley National Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds said commercial truck wrecks or fires always raise concerns about what materials might end up in the park.
Firefighters have extinguished a fire after a truck carrying 44,000 pounds of chickpeas went up in flames in Death Valley National Park last month. (NPS/Brian Aillaud)
“However, there is very little chance that stray chickpeas that are not cleaned up will become invasive species in the driest place in North America,” Reynolds said.
Officials said the chickpeas will not pose a threat to Death Valley National Park’s ecosystem. (iStock)
Towing service Two Star Towing removed the charred wreckage and cleaned up the rest dried chickpeas, park officials said.
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The incident was one of a handful of truck fires to occur in the park this year The San Francisco Chronicle reports this.
Steady drought and record summer heat make Death Valley “a land of extremes,” NPS says on its website. (NPS/Hoerner, file)
California Highway Patrol Spokesman Torey Michener told the newspaper in July that truck fires are “usually driver error, braking instead of using the engine to downshift to reduce speed causing the fire.”
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Abby Wines, spokesperson for Death Valley National Park, told the newspaper at the time that most drivers don’t know you can downshift to save the brakes — even with an automatic transmission.
