Sisters crews battle a pair of car fires

Up in smoke on Highway 20.

Summer traffic heated up -- literally -- with two vehicle fires calling for response from Sisters fire crews.

A traveler heading east toward John Day overheated his brakes on Highway 20, six miles west of Sisters, causing a fire that consumed his old model pickup truck and fifth wheel on Saturday, May 25.

Bystander Ed Garcia of Sisters said it took just minutes for the fire to gut the truck and trailer. The driver managed to pull off on the shoulder and escaped the vehicle without injury.

The incident was called in at 11:38 a.m. and the first fire units arrived on scene at 11:45. It took about 10 minutes to knock flames down.

Traffic was stopped in both directions while the fire raged. Due to the heavy holiday volume, traffic remained backed up coming into Sisters for some time after the incident.

In an unrelated incident, a vehicle caught fire in Camp Sherman Saturday evening after the driver got stuck in the woods.

According to Sisters fire department reports, the small pickup truck bogged down and the catalytic converter caught the duff under the vehicle on fire. The blaze consumed the vehicle.