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One lane of the Mountain Parkway in Powell County was shut down for several hours after a semi trailer caught fire early Monday morning.

Police say the truck was heading eastbound, just west of the Clay City exit around 2 a.m., when the driver noticed sparks coming from the axle on one of his two trailers. He pulled over and called 911 and firefighters quickly arrived on the scene.

"Well, our main concern when we got on see was seeing the fuel tank on there. The driver of the truck did advise us that it was full of diesel," Clay City firefighter Stevie Townsend said.

Firefighters were able to keep that fuel tank from going up in flames, but the blaze destroyed about 12,000 pounds of food in that trailer.

"We noticed that the trailer was being fully engulfed. It was flames on top of the trailer. It was taller than the trailer. We just blocked the road down and tried to do what we could," Townsend said.

Crews reopened all lanes around 5 a.m.

The driver was not injured.