As firefighters and a deputy arrived at the scene of truck fire Monday, about five miles north of Jacksonville, they were greeted by a blast of ammunition.
"There were a few boxes of ammunition inside the vehicle at the time. They were going off upon our arrival," Jacksonville Fire Capt. Doug Sills said.
Morgan County Sheriff's Deputy Lt. Kim Troyer said he and the firefighters arrived about the same time and were not injured when shotgun shells inside the truck cab exploded upon contact with the flames.
"We heard a boom, a blast," Troyer said. "We hesitated to see if any more were going to go off."
The incident happened after George R. Cox, 42, of Jacksonville pulled off Ill. 78 when his 2005 Ford F-250 pickup truck caught on fire about 11:05 a.m.
The shotgun shells were left over from hunting ducks earlier, Cox said.
Cox, a Morgan County Animal Control officer, had the day off and was driving his own vehicle from Virginia when he smelled something getting hot, he said. Cox pulled over to check out the smell and when he didn't find anything wrong he proceeded toward Jacksonville.
He was soon engulfed in smoke.
"Smoke went everywhere. The flames came shortly afterward," Cox said.
Cox managed to pull over a second time and get out of the truck unharmed before flames ignited the ammunition and consumed the vehicle near a rock pile north of Arcadia Road.
Sills said the truck, valued at $27,000, is a total loss. The cause of the fire could not be determined because of the extensive damage. The fire is believed to have started underneath the passenger-side front seat, Sills said.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
