Five Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) crews from the Central Coast joined colleagues from Lake Macquarie to extinguish a trailer fire on the M1 on January 11.
At about 12.46pm on January 11 motorists reported a large cloud of thick, black smoke emanating from a truck trailer as the prime mover drove south.
The driver, once alerted, pulled the rig to the side of the freeway and used an emergency telephone to contact authorities.
The driver managed to disconnect the burning trailer, containing a load of scrap metal.
Two southbound lanes of the M1 were blocked as firefighters sprayed the load with water and foam.
Crews then towed the trailer to nearby Old Maitland Rd where they could better access the wreckage and extinguish the blaze.
Fire and Rescue crews were assisted by Rural Fire Service tankers, NSW Police and NSW Ambulance.
There were no reports of injury arising from the incident.
It took fire crews almost three-and-a-half hours to douse the flames and complete mopping-up operations.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.