The crash shut down the interstate at the border of Halifax and Nash counties for about two hours.
Truck driver Jarvis Brown, 30, of Faison, was in critical condition at UNC Burn Center in Chapel Hill. He was found outside his truck. It wasn't clear whether the victim was thrown out of the vehicle or escaped on his own.
Troopers said the crash started when the driver of one tractor-trailer failed to stop as traffic backed up due to another crash.
``As soon as it collided, it burst into flames,'' said N.C. Highway Patrol Master Trooper C.E. Carroll, who witnessed the crash. ``I saw the cab fall away, and the whole thing just caught fire.''
Debris came across the median and into the southbound lane, where Carroll was driving, he said.
Carroll was responding to another wreck about 9:20 a.m. Wednesday on I-95 a few miles north of the 154 mile marker in Halifax County when the tractor-trailer accident occurred.
Traffic was slowed because of the first accident, and one 18-wheeler carrying a load of plastic was in the right lane of the northbound side of the interstate. A truck with an empty flatbed trailer came up behind it, Carroll said.
``When it hit, (flames) ripped right through that truck,'' he said.
