Courtesy of the Virginia State Police

A tractor-trailer caught fire and was destroyed Thursday afternoon after it rear-ended another large truck on Interstate 81 near mile marker 87 in Pulaski County near Wytheville.

Virginia State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Conroy said James Duff, 77, of Gastonia, N.C., was charged with following too closely after he struck a truck that had blown a tire and was heading for the shoulder. Flames consumed Duff's vehicle and one of the two trailers he was towing. Neither driver was hauling hazardous material.

Both lanes of northbound Interstate 81 were closed just after 11:30 a.m. By 5:30 p.m. only the right lane was open.

"There was a lot of oil and hydraulic fluid, about 200 feet of oil from his transmission that also had to be cleaned up," Conroy said.

He said both Duff and the other driver, Dushan Palaic, 47, of Cleveland, were treated for injuries he described as non-life-threatening.

-- Neil Harvey