Something similar happened to me once. It was 4am and I was about to enter a construction zone. I saw hazard lights and a stopped semi up around a bend so I move off into the contraflow lane to avoid what I assumed was an accident.

Suddenly a concrete barrier out of nowhere, which I very narrowly missed, forcing me out of the contraflow lane. Cut to driving through a debris field, and when I get to the stopped semi, I see what had happend. It wasn't hazard lights. It was fire. The left side of the semi was torn up. He had hit the concrete divider where the contraflow lane starts effectively closing it.