A woman having a sleep in her ute was awoken to the incredible sight of a loud and large explosion, which caused flames to shoot everywhere on the Napier-Taupō Road.
Angela Payne was parked off the road, near Te Pohue, when the noise woke her at around 3am on Friday.
Payne supplied the spectacular footage to Newshub showing a truck and trailer on fire, with smoke and ashes coving the road.
Payne said she was fast asleep in her ute during an overnight drive when the explosion occurred.
"I was woken by the sounds of explosions and woke to find trucks parked in front of me and the truck trailer behind me exploding with flames shooting everywhere," she told Stuff.
Payne told Newshub she hopes these videos raise awarenesses to highlight how brakes can overheat in trucks and the harm and damage it can do.
She told Newshub the other drivers, which raced to the truck and worked together to help tame the fire, are "heroes".
The driver of the truck which exploded said to Payne there were dangerous goods on board and the trailer brakes had overheated.
"Other truckies helped him drop his trailer and pull away in time to abandon the load. They managed the incident very well ... I stopped filming and missed the major booms as more stuff exploded, goopy flames flying all over the place," Payne said to Stuff.
"It started exploding a lot more and I left the scene because I would have been in the way of the fire brigade which I also passed later on my way to Bay View," she said.
Fire and Emergency NZ said seven fire trucks attended the blaze and no one was injured. The trucks left the scene at 7:10am.
