THOUSANDS of motorists suffered long delays after a lorry caught fire on the M62.

The motorway was closed in both directions for hours yesterday after the HGV caught fire on the hard shoulder of the eastbound carriageway near junction 22, Rishworth Moor, at around 11.30am.

Drivers were trapped in gridlock for up to four hours while fire crews tackled the 38-tonne lorry blaze before the road was reopened.

Eastbound tailbacks stretched 10 miles to junction 19, Birch, into the evening.

Fire crews from Elland, Halifax and Greater Manchester attended the blaze which took around 40 minutes to control and two hours to extinguish.

The driver, who was unhurt, managed to pull his HGV, which was carrying plastic drainage blocks, on to the hard shoulder as the fire began.

Elland fire station crew manager Frank Van Rooyen was one of the first on the scene.

He said: “We got there and it was fully on fire in the cab and it had spread to the containers.

“The flames were above the height of the vehicle and very intense.

“There were clouds of thick, black smoke which you could see for miles around.

“We had to do shuttle runs because the nearest fire hydrant was three miles away.”

A Highways Agency spokesman said: “We closed the M62 both eastbound and westbound shortly after 11.30am when a lorry caught fire on the eastbound carriageway at junction 22.

“It was shut due to the intensity of the blaze and the smoke.

“At 1.25pm the westbound lanes were re-opened, but there was a long tailback, back to almost Junction 24.

“We later managed to open lanes two and three of the eastbound lanes but lane one and the hardshoulder shut for emergency repairs due to the intensity of the fire.

“They won’t be reopened until the early hours of today.”