The fire brigade was called to a truck fire near Glen Elgin to the east of Glen Innes in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
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When they got there, the driver had extinguished it with a towel. Fire officers said he was a very lucky man.
Captain Earl Sharman of Fire & Rescue NSW said it seems to have started in a locker in the cab while the vehicle was moving and smoke then got up into the driving and sleeping area.
The driver stopped and grabbed a towel and put it out.
It seems the blaze started because the truck which was carrying a load of sugar had just been climbing a steep hill in the Gibraltar Range. That may have heated the exhaust which passes near the compartment where the fire started.
In a separate incident, firefighters from Glen Innes put out a caravan fire at the end of last week. Just after midnight on October 6, they were called to the blaze on a property just north of town on the New England Highway.
Two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used a hose to bring it under control. The caravan was empty at the time.
An electrical fault may have been to blame. A 210 kilogram gas cylinder was leaking from around the valve and the firefighters also sorted this out.