From New York

Maybrook - The westbound lanes of Interstate 84 were closed for about an hour yesterday after an SUV being towed behind a flatbed wrecker caught fire on the highway. The flames spread from the first vehicle, an 2002 Mazda Tribute, onto the flatbed, igniting a second SUV, an ’05 Chevy Trailblazer.
State police and fire investigators could not determine yesterday why the Mazda, being towed by its rear, caught fire around 2 p.m., just shy of Exit 5 in Maybrook.
The driver of the flatbed, owned by Martin Towing in Owego, picked up the SUVs from a repossession lot in Patterson. Police said Ryan Short, 27, of Nichols, was headed for the State Line Auto Auction in Waverly. “He drove for 30 miles or so and then it just lit up,” said Trooper Paul Gladman.
Short pulled off the highway onto the shoulder of the road and tried to douse the fire with his extinguisher. The driver of a tractor-trailer pulled over to help, but as the heat intensified, tires and pieces of metal began popping like gun shots.
An eastbound police officer from the Town of Lloyd was first on the scene, making a U-turn to help stop traffic as firefighters from Maybrook and East Coldenham arrived to extinguish the fire. No one was injured.