MARION, Ind. — A truck transporting zebras and camels for a series of weekend circus acts caught fire on a northeastern Indiana highway early Saturday morning, prompting police to rescue the animals, some of which were wandering along the highway and some grazing on grass.
Around 2 a.m., a tractor-trailer caught fire along Interstate 69 in Grant County, and state police, a Grant County sheriff's deputy and a third person took five zebras, four camels and a miniature horse in a smoke-filled car. We rescued him by pulling him out of the trailer. said the sergeant. Stephen Glass of the Indiana State Police.
Both officers were treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation and released, but no animals were injured, he said. The truck driver, a 57-year-old Sarasota, Florida man, was not injured. All northbound lanes of I-69 were closed until about 6:30 a.m. after the area was cleared and the animals were transferred to another truck.
The Grant County Sheriff's Office posted photos and video on Facebook showing the camel walking down the highway and later standing along the shoulder and median with zebras and law enforcement officers. The post included the message: 'Do no harm to our furry friends.'
One video shows some zebras grazing in a surreal scene a few miles east of the city of Marion, about 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis.
“It’s not something we see every day,” said Deputy Brent Ressett of the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.
The truck was bringing animals from Florida to Fort Wayne for four weekend circus performances in the northeastern Indiana city in support of the Mizpah Shrine Circus, said circus director Steve Trump. ) said.
He said the show raises money for the Mizpah Shrine Circus' annual fundraiser, which helps pay for the costs of maintaining the Shrine Center in Fort Wayne “so that we can use other fundraising efforts to do what we are best known for: caring for children.” He said it was an event.
Trump said the truck crew stopped the vehicle along the highway to check for problems with the vehicle, but the fire quickly spread, threatening the animals in the trailer until they could be rescued.
The fire destroyed the truck, and a second truck was sent from Fort Wayne to pick up the animals from the highway and take them to the Fort Wayne Memorial Coliseum to await their roles in the weekend's family-friendly circus act, he said.
“I’m really glad it worked out the way it did,” Trump said.