Truck’s cargo of fireworks explodes into hour-long light show after Highway 1 crash in southwest B.C. | CBC News

A collision on the Trans-Canada Highway east of Vancouver resulted in an hour-long light show on Thursday night after the crash caused a commercial truck’s cargo of fireworks to ignite.

RCMP said a pickup truck and a semi-trailer hauling fireworks collided as they were travelling eastbound on the highway around 10 kilometres west of Hope, B.C.

The incident, which happened around 10 p.m. PT, caused the fireworks to go off, resulting in flashes and explosions above the highway.

Cpl. Carmen Kiener with Chilliwack RCMP said the incident closed Highway 1 eastbound for about an hour, until the fireworks eventually stopped.

“Obviously, the fireworks were quite the display to passerby motorists,” she said.

‘Raging inferno’

Ryan Kuhn said he was on his way to Hope, about 125 kilometres east of Vancouver, on Thursday night when he saw “a raging inferno of fireworks.”

“I came around a corner and, well, saw fireworks. It seemed very strange for 10 o’clock at night,” Kuhn told CBC News.

Kuhn said vehicles on the highway slowed down or stopped to watch the fireworks, which he described as the “best fireworks show I’ll ever see.”

“It was a bit of mayhem,” he said, describing the semi-trailer, which he said had caught on fire.

Video taken by people at the scene shows fireworks exploding high in the sky above the highway, as continuous pops and bangs are heard.

The drivers of the two vehicles were taken to hospital with minor injuries, RCMP said. 

Kiener said they were the only occupants of the vehicles, and that investigators are continuing to determine the cause of the crash.