BLANDFORD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - We continue to follow breaking news out of Blandford, a massive three-alarm fire engulfing a tractor trailer at a service plaza just off of the westbound side of the Mass Pike. Western Mass News has been at the scene all afternoon, just feet away from where this happened. Just glancing at what we saw seconds ago, this looked very scary.

You can see the diesel station itself is toast, some of the station’s canopy melted off. We can also tell you a towing company had been in the process of removing the tractor trailer from that diesel fueling station during the last couple of hours.

It was a ginormous fireball with black smoke going into the sky, a normal day along the Mass Pike turned into chaos in an instant. This incident happened at around 1:00 p.m. Friday afternoon at the gulf diesel station on the west side of the Blandford Service Plaza on the westbound side of the highway.

It took crews from several towns to get these flames under control. Firefighters were still putting water on hotspots; the fire has since been put out. You can see the cab of the tractor trailer is burnt out, in fact, it’s unrecognizable.

Firefighters coming from Blandford, Westfield, Becket, Huntington, Chester, West Springfield, and other surrounding towns to get a handle on these flames. Even Massachusetts State Police were here as well.

We can tell you everyone who was inside the service plaza was able to evacuate before firefighters began arriving. The retail part of the rest area was not damaged at all, and there were no other vehicles at the regular gas station and diesel area. However, much of the diesel station has been heavily damaged and lost as a result. We can also tell you the driver of the truck is okay, and the trailer itself was empty.

Western mass news spoke with Blandford Fire Chief Adam Dolby. Knowing so much fuel was inside the truck and underneath all of the pumps, he says it is amazing this incident did not get any worse. He said he is also thankful for those who helped diffuse the situation, “Certainly, grateful both for the response, of state police shutting down the rest area quickly and making sure we weren’t adding additional hazards into the scene, as well as all of the surrounding towns that helped us out. We’d be in a world of hurt without them.”

Traffic was not affected on either side of the highway. However, the service plaza on the westbound side has been closed for much of the afternoon. The anticipation is to have the service plaza reopen shortly.

We know the diesel station is out of service, but the regular gas station and the retail area will be open to vehicular and people traffic soon.

No injuries to report, which is very good news.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by the State Fire Marshal’s Office in conjunction with the Blandford Fire Department. As soon as we have that information, we will certainly pass it along to you.

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