NEW HARMONY — A fire that burned a motor home to the ground closed off northbound Interstate 15 near New Harmony and Kanarraville Saturday afternoon, and the driver of the vehicle fled the scene.
Utah Highway Patrol responded to the motor home fire on the northbound I-15 just south of exit 40 in New Harmony at approximately 1:45 p.m. The motor home had stopped in the right lane of traffic, halfway into the shoulder, and then caught on fire.
“When I got there, it was completely on fire,” UHP Sergeant Jake Hicks said. “It blocked both lanes of I-15 northbound while the fire crews got there and started putting the fire out. Once they started getting the fire out, we were able to open a lane and we had one lane open for about three hours. This took a long time.”
According to Hicks, there was only one lane open on the northbound I-15 until about 5 p.m.
The operator of the motor home could not be found. The vehicle is not registered, it has no insurance and is an older vehicle, Hicks added. He also said that no one was stuck in the motor home after it caught on fire.
“After the fire was out, we went to where the license plate should be and going through the rubble I found the plate,” Hicks said. “Brushing away the smoke and the burnt stuff we were able to decipher from the imprint the numbering. It expired about a year ago and my assumption is that it was sold.”
Hicks is unsure of whether the motor home was being towed or was being driven.
UHP is looking for the current owner of the vehicle but Hicks confirmed the motor home did have Nevada license plates. It is still under investigation as to who owns the trailer or who was driving it at the time it was left on I-15.
There was only one injury as a result of the crash and it was a responder from the Department of Natural Resources. The extent of the injuries is unknown.
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