A trailer carrying a highly explosive fertiliser has caught fire in central Queensland, forcing police set up a two kilometre exclusion zone.
The truck was carrying ammonium nitrate on the Leichhardt Highway, southwest of Rockhampton, when one wheel on the trailer caught fire.
The driver managed to unhook the rig from the trailer but couldn't put out the fire.
The large exclusion zone is being enforced, with the highway blocked in both directions.
Authorities said at 3pm the trailer was no longer on fire, however several grassfires had been sparked by the initial crash and they are still burning.
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Ammonium nitrate is used in fertilisers however it is also highly explosive, as was seen in 2014 when a truck carrying the chemical rolled and exploded in western Queensland.
In that incident the truck was carrying 53 tonnes of the chemical, and the resulting blast blew apart a major highway bridge, destroyed several trucks and injured eight people, including four firefighters and a police officer.
