Car fire shuts down one lane of I-15

PAYSON — A car fire Thursday afternoon temporarily shut down one lane of traffic on I-15 just north of Payson.

The occupants of a 1997 Ford Taurus stopped their car in the lane when it began smoking, then quickly got out as the car caught fire just before 4 p.m.

Police arrived and put out the fire, but not before the car had burned up, said Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Preston Raban.

No one was injured but one lane of the two-lane interstate was temporarily closed as crews pulled the car off the road.

Normally, it's better to pull off on the shoulder with car emergencies, Raban said.

But in this case it was actually better the driver stopped on the road because it prevented the car fire from spreading to the grass near the shoulder of the road, Raban said.