Crime Log: Truck fire delays snarl I-19 traffic Friday morning

A delivery truck that overturned and caught fire backed up Interstate traffic for several hours on Friday morning.

The single-vehicle accident occurred just before 4 a.m. in the northbound lanes of Interstate 19 near Pima Mine Road, said Officer Quentin Mehr, Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesperson.

The Kraft Foods truck, described as a 25-foot-long box truck, ran over a mattress in the roadway and overturned. The mattress got stuck in the truck’s engine area and caught on fire, said Mehr.

The driver, who was uninjured, was able to get out of the truck before it became engulfed in flames.

The Interstate was closed as officers cleared the roadway of accident debris and food packages. The left lane was reopened around 6 a.m. and both lanes were cleared by 8:40 a.m., Mehr said.

Neighboring Green Valley businesses were victimized between Thursday night and early Friday morning, Pima County Sheriff’s reports said.

The owner of Jill’s Cleaning, 271 W. Calle de las Tiendas, arrived at work to find that the tires on her business vehicle, a Plymouth Laser, had been taken. The thief propped the car up on cynder blocks and took four brand-new tires and rims, reports said.

Next door at Sorenson’s Lube and Auto Shop, employees discovered that someone had picked the locks to their business office and their main building. They discovered the burglary when they noticed that one of the locks on the outside doors was missing. A few items inside the office were moved, but nothing was taken, the owner said.

This is the second time the auto shop has been burglarized in a month. Around $100 in cash was taken from the cash register a few weeks ago when a burglar entered the business by picking the locks, reports said.

Sheriff’s deputies say a car fire that burned in a rural area of Sahuarita Thursday was most likely set by smugglers.

Just before midnight, deputies were called to a remote area on East Davis Road — which is just east of Santa Rita Road, off of Sahuarita Road — where they found Rural/Metro firefighters already working to put out a fire.

A 1998 Dodge Stationwagon was engulfed in flames and about 75 feet of brush surrounding it also burned, Pima County Sheriff’s reports said.

Authorities found car tracks leading away from the scene, and believe the Stationwagon was used for smuggling and then set on fire.

They later determined that the vehicle was stolen from Tucson Dodge, a dealership in the 4000 block of East 22nd Street, where it was being held for repairs, reports said.

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726