Camper Fire Caps Labor Day Weekend Gone Wrong for Iowan

By FRED SCHULZE, Courier Lee News Service,writer

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By Becky Ogann

Story Created: Sep 7, 2010 at 9:31 AM CST

Story Updated: Sep 7, 2010 at 9:31 AM CST

LEWISTON, Minn. - John Infante knew his Labor Day wouldn't be just any holiday when smoke started rising from the back of his friend's camper he was driving.

Infante was headed home to Mason City, Iowa, on Monday afternoon on Interstate 90 when he smelled something burning. He pulled over near the Lewiston exit and removed a pair of bicycles and a bag of clothes from the motor home.

He barely got out in time.

"It just burst into flames," Infante said, as he sat in the grass near the charred remains of James Kleven's camper.

The Lewiston Fire Department responded to the blaze about 2:30 p.m. The Minnesota State Patrol and the Winona County Sheriff's Department closed one westbound lane of Interstate 90 for about an hour until the fire department put out the fire.

Infante and Kleven spent the holiday weekend with Kleven's aunt and uncle in Trempealeau, Wis.

The totaled motor home wasn't the only thing that disrupted their plans to spend the holiday weekend biking. When they arrived in Wisconsin, their bikes' tires were flat. Once their bikes were working, Kleven crashed into Infante.

Kleven wasn't able to make the return trip to Iowa. He's now at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse with a broken collar bone and broken hip.

As Infante stood near some rock on the side of the road along I-90, waiting for some friends to get him, he surveyed the charred shell of the motor home. As if on cue, rain started to fall.

"It's been a bad weekend altogether," Infante said.

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