In the morning, a van caught fire on the way to Latgale in the Ogre region. The driver sensed in time that the vehicle was malfunctioning and managed to pull over to the side of the road and exit the vehicle, reports the Degpunktā program (TV3).
Charred fruits, vegetables, and dairy products intended for three stores in Ludza and Zilupe were unloaded next to a partially burned van on the Tinuži–Koknese highway. The driver of the damaged vehicle is waiting for management to arrive to decide what to do next with the goods and the vehicle.
"The clutch failed. The revs were there, but the car wouldn’t move. I tried to stop it and restart it because the speed was a maximum of 9 km/h," says Volkswagen van driver Alexey.
The man stopped and contacted his employer. During the phone call, white smoke began to pour from the engine compartment, which quickly turned black:
"I gathered all my things. I moved about 200–300 meters ahead. Then I saw the car starting to burn from underneath. That’s when I called the firefighters, and by the time they arrived, the car was already burned down."
The firefighters managed to extinguish the fire in a few minutes.
