I first heard of an “incident” on M-66 coming into Ionia.  There was a flurry of public safety messages flying through the air waves.  Those who were closer to the site, would have seen a column of thick black smoke and heard the sirens.

A large tractor was pulling a load of lime.  The operator noticed that there was a “mechanical malfunction” of some sort.  He pulled of the highway into a [mostly] empty parking lot.  As he got out of the cab, he saw the fire and got to safety.  Unfortunately he was a bit too close to the diner.  Here are images gleaned from the Web.

Let’s hope that someone had good insurance.