The driver of a tanker truck that wrecked and caught fire about 5:15 a.m. Thursday wasn’t seriously hurt but the blaze heavily damaged his rig and spread to a nearby house on U.S. 21 near the Roaring Gap Church Road intersection in the Thurmond community. Jeffrey Reed, 41, of Statesville was operating the 2009 Volvo tractor and pulling a trailer with an empty tank northbound on U.S. 21 when he went off on the right side of the highway to avoid a southbound tractor-trailer that came into his lane, said Trooper C.M. Anderson of the N.C. Highway Patrol. The rig went through a yard and its cab burst into flames after hitting a tree, with the front of the cab coming to a halt only about two feet from the corner of the wood frame home of Jon and Teresa Brewer.