BATH

Police closed Route 1 northbound briefly Thursday morning while firefighters doused a truck fire near gas pumps at Cumberland Farms.

The box truck pulled off the highway into the gas station with the rear section of the truck on fire, Bath Police Chief Steve Hinds said Thursday, noting the proximity to the pumps made for a potentially dangerous situation.

“ He actually drove and parked near the canopy for the pumps, relatively close to the building,” Hinds said. “ He’d been driving north toward Wiscasset and people driving by were honking their horns saying, ‘There’s smoke coming out of your truck.’”

Bath police and fire personnel responded at 8:28 a.m. to find what Hinds described as “awful, acrid smoke blanketing the highway,” emanating from the truck, which contained equipment that blew insulation into buildings.

“The back of the truck was like a science project,” Hinds said. “That was fully involved.”

Between heavy snow falling and heavy smoke, he said, “conditions were so bad that you couldn’t see the road,” and police closed the road briefly.

No damage to the gas tanks or the buildings was reported, Hinds said, nor were any injuries sustained.

The fire gutted the back of the truck, registered to I&S Insulation of Wiscasset, but the cab, wheels and motor were undamaged.

Fire crews cleared the scene at 9:35 a.m.