The day Mr Spark caught fire
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• Tuesday, August 31, is a day 33-year-old lorry driver Mr James Spark, of Hardwick Street. Blackhall Colliery, Co Durham. is not likely to forget. His trailer was loaded with 300 Calor gas cylinders and as he was passing through the village of Chop Gate, near Stokesley, North Yorks, he looked in his driving mirror and saw smoke coming from behind. Investigation showed that the brake fluid was on fire.
He drove out of the village to a lay-by about a mile away and tried to douse the fire with an extinguisher and a pair of dungaree trousers. He also managed to offload some of the cylinders, but the flames spread. Nevertheless, despite the imminent danger of an explosion, he uncoupled the tractive unit and drove off to stop oncoming traffic. Minutes later the cylinders exploded in a series of bangs that lasted 45 minutes. The road was blocked for an hour and a half due to the danger of unexploded cylinders expanding and bursting in the intense heat. Some of the bursting cylinders made craters 3ft deep in the surrounding fields. Blasts shook the houses in the village. but fortunately no one was hurt.
Police, firemen and villagers were loud in their praises of the driver.
Mr George [son, regional Northern and Scottish transport manager for Calor Gas. said Mr Spark had done wonderfully well in dealing with the emergency, adding: "detaching the unit from the trailer on fire was fantastic".