VILLAS – Lower Township police and firefighters responded to a commercial vehicle that caught fire near the intersection of Bayshore and Fulling Mill roads, July 26, at around 1 p.m.
According to information provided by the Lower Township Police Department, its officers were dispatched to 1515 Bayshore Rd., Villas, where they found a cargo body truck showing a large amount of smoke and flames from the front end of the vehicle. Police immediately began moving pedestrians away from the vehicle, not knowing what the truck might be carrying, and shut down Bayshore Road.
According to the police report, the driver, identified as Bruce Playford, said he and his partner, Joseph Banach, were sitting in the cab of the vehicle when they started to hear “weird noises” coming from the vehicle and then saw smoke coming from the engine compartment. Playford set the air brakes and he and Banach got out of the vehicle, where they immediately noticed smoke and flames coming from the front of the vehicle.
The Villas Volunteer Fire Company responded to the scene and extinguished the fire. Neither man from the vehicle required any medical attention. Cape May County Public Works removed the vehicle and cleaned up oil and debris in the roadway.
