Off-duty firefighter puts out truck fire with cans of beer

HOUSTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) —

An off-duty Texas firefighter heading home from a vacation extinguished a truck fire with the truck’s load of Coors Banquet beer.

Houston Fire Department Capt. Craig Moreau said he and his wife were driving back from Austin on State Highway 71 when they spotted an 18-wheeler with smoke coming from the brakes, the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday.

"The brakes had caught and the tire was burning," Moreau said.

He said the blaze initially seemed to die down, but it soon "flared back up."

"So I said to the driver, ‘what have you got in here?’" he said.

Moreau said he and the truck driver shook up and sprayed cans of Coors Banquet beer from the truck’s haul to battle the flames. He said the tire exploded from the heat, but the beer eventually did the trick and put out the flames.

"I have no doubt if the beer hadn’t been there, the whole trailer would have burned up," Moreau said. "A few more minutes down the road and it may not have worked."

Moreau said the incident was not the first time he had battled a fire while off-duty, but it was a unique experience.

"It’s in our nature to help folks, but this is the first time I’ve done it with beer," he said.