Hero truckie’s ‘longest drive’

farmers that Rodgers’ actions prevented a ‘‘far worse environmental fire, potentially entire crops destroyed and prevented delays to motorists on State Highway 1’’, Lowe said.

‘‘As shown from subsequent fires in Canterbury the fire risk is very high.’’

He said the cause of the truck fire was still unknown as investigations were ongoing.

‘‘The cause of the fire is not obvious so this is all a process of elimination.’’

Lowe said video footage taken by witnesses determined the fire originated from the front of the rear B-train trailer.

‘‘The fire investigator has been able to eliminate the milk powder, mechanical issues and electrical issues with the trailer as the cause.

‘‘The investigation has concluded, however.’’ not

Lowe said Rodgers advised the Summerland Dunedin office and got them to ring emergency services after he saw the flames on the trailer.

‘‘Vehicles overtook him signalling to him that there was a problem.

‘‘In the next few kilometres he saw flames growing and was concerned he may not be able to make it before something failed on the trailer.

‘‘He was able carpark.

‘‘He jumped out with an extinguisher but said that he realised quickly that it was too far gone.’’

Lowe said that once the results of the investigation has been released, Summerland Express would share the results with the NZ Transport Agency and Commercial vehicle safety team (CVST). to get to the