By Julie Janovsky
The East Valley Tribune

TEMPE, Ariz. — A Scottsdale firefighter used his military training in Iraq to help extinguish a tractor-trailer fire that stopped traffic for a few hours Friday on Loop 202 in Tempe.

Dennis Lisack, 23, of Scotts-dale, served four years of active duty with the U.S. Marines, where he learned to operate heavy equipment. He put those skills to use Friday morning on the freeway, when crews from Scottsdale, Tempe, Phoenix and Mesa faced a tractor-trailer filled with 70,000 pounds of burning compacted cardboard.

"The only way to extinguish the fire was to pull the cardboard bales off and spread it out," said Lisack, a firefighter with Scottsdale's Engine 602 — the first fire unit to arrive at the scene.

An open bucket loader was available at the scene, but heat from the burning cardboard required the driver to be in full fire gear.

Lisack, who returned from Iraq in August 2005, said his captain in command knew he had experience with operating heavy equipment and assigned him to handle the open bucket loader.

Lisack climbed in and pulled the burning bales off the trailer so fire crews could concentrate on putting out the fire and extinguish the cardboard bales more easily.

"He did a phenomenal job," Scottsdale Battalion Chief Seth Bacon wrote in an incident summary. "It was truly awesome to watch one of our newest firefighters perform such a critical task so efficiently."

The tractor-trailer burst into flames while westbound on the Red Mountain Freeway leg of Loop 202 at approximately 9:35 a.m. at the Scottsdale Road off-ramp, authorities said.

Fire officials said the tractortrailer driver saw smoke rising from the uncovered cargo and was able to drive the truck out of traffic. Authorities said the driver then detached the truck from the trailer and drove the truck about 30 feet away from the flames.

Lisack said if fire crews hadn't used the bucket loader, they most likely would have had to wait until the fire burned out on its own, meaning six more hours of snarled traffic.

No injuries were reported at the scene, Lisack said.

Tempe Fire Department spokesman Mike Reichling said Friday a discarded cigarette butt from another vehicle could have caused the blaze, which is under investigation.