GRILLED CHEESE! Semi filled with 20K pounds of cheese bursts into flames in West Allis

WEST ALLIS -- West Allis officials responded to a fire involving a semi trailer near National and Cleveland Avenues on Tuesday afternoon, April 18th.

Authorities said the semi was filled with cheese -- 20,000 pounds of it!

Apparently, the driver got a call that the truck was on fire, so he pulled over and tried putting it out himself, but he couldn't. Fire officials said it was a tough fire to fight because the cheese itself was on fire inside the trailer.

"Because the contents of the trailer were packed so tightly and it was on fire inside, we decided to bring in a front-end loader to open it up so we could get water in and make sure the fire was completely extinguished," Kurt Zellmann, West Allis assistant fire chief said.

Fire officials said the semi's driver did the right thing by finding a big, open parking lot away from any buildings.

PHOTO GALLERY

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but officials said it may have had something to do with the semi's brakes.

Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates.