The eastbound lanes of Interstate 80 were closed Sunday night at the Waverly, Nebraska, exit due to a semitrailer truck fire.
There was no immediate word on injuries. One lane was opened for eastbound traffic at 11 p.m.
By 3 a.m., all eastbound lanes were open, state patrol dispatchers said.
"Flames were at least 10-15 ft high. In the pouring down rain and black of the night. The semi was burnt out to just a shell barely discernible," Deryl Hatch-Tocaimaza, who saw the inferno from the westbound lanes, wrote on Twitter.
“It was just before the weigh station," said Hatch-Tocaimaza, of Lincoln, in an interview late Sunday night. The semi, "was in the middle of the freeway. ... It was a huge fireball.”
Eastbound traffic was backed up for at least a half mile, he said.
Authorities asked motorists to use U.S. Highway 6 instead.
Eastbound motorists could get back on the Interstate at the Greenwood exit.
