UPDATE: new information in Thursday afternoon I-66 vehicle fire. Watch VIDEO.

Photo by Chris Leneave – See video below.

Royal Examiner Publisher Mike McCool shot these photos as he approached the scene of the I-66 vehicle fire Thursday afternoon. The charred vehicle is partially visible on the left shoulder, just in front of the white responder’s pickup truck.

A potential cause of the vehicle fire that backed up westbound traffic early Thursday afternoon at the Front Royal exit on Interstate 66 has been identified. A Warren County Fire & Rescue incident report describes the vehicle as “fully involved” upon arrival.  A grass fire in the interstate median was also extinguished, the report states, adding that a “drive train” was found in the area of the grass fire.

A 2012 Dodge pickup was the involved vehicle.  The driver, identified by Warren County Fire & Rescue as Gerald Peterson, was not injured.  The truck was identified as attached to the “MYR fleet”.

Peterson told responders that he felt a vibration and a thump as he was driving westbound on I-66 at the incident’s outset.  The vehicle had been operating normally prior to that, Peterson said.  He was able to pull the truck over to the median off the left lane and exit the vehicle before fire engulfed it.

Two emergency service companies from Warren County, North Warren Company 10 and Front Royal Company 1, along with the Middletown Fire Department from Frederick County were dispatched to the scene near the 5-1/2 mile mark of I-66 shortly before 1 p.m., Thursday, October 5.

Lt. Chris Jones of Warren Company 10 said units from his department were dispatched at 12:50 p.m.  Virginia State Police Public Relations Officer Corinne Geller said the westbound lanes of I-66 near the Front Royal exit were cleared by 1:54 p.m.  Jones said Company 10 cleared the scene at 1:45 p.m.