Early last Saturday, a truck traveling on the freeway in Indiana with a trailer full of circus animals caught fire.

The truck traveling along Interstate 69 in Grant County was hauling five zebras, four camels, and a miniature horse. The truck was bringing the animals from Florida to Fort Wayne for four-weekend circus performances in the northeastern Indiana city benefitting the Mizpah Shrine Circus, said Steve Trump, its circus director. 

The truck caught fire in Grant County, Indiana. Trump said the truck’s crew stopped the vehicle along the highway to check a problem with the vehicle and discovered a fire that quickly spread, threatening the animals in its trailer.

Around 2 a.m. Saturday, a state trooper, a Grant County Sheriff’s deputy, and a third person rescued the animals. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office posted photos and videos to social media of camels walking on the highway and standing along its shoulder and its median with zebras and law enforcement officers. 

Both officers were treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation and later released, but none of the animals were injured, said Sgt. Steven Glass with Indiana State Police. The truck driver, a 57-year-old Sarasota, Florida, man, was not injured. All northbound lanes of I-69 were closed until about 6:30 a.m. once the area was cleaned up and the animals were taken away by another truck.