FedEx parcels from region burn on I-40 — 200 packages burn in Oklahoma fire

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — FedEx crews spend most of Thursday going through the charred trailer of a FedEx truck that was severely damaged by fire early Thursday morning in Oklahoma.

Preliminary reports indicated that more than 200 packages were either destroyed or partially damaged in the fire that occurred on Interstate Highway 40 near Vian, Okla.

The packages, said a spokesman for FedEx, were on their way from Gallup to the company’s Olive Branch, Miss., distribution center.

According to Vian fire officials, the fire started in the back of the truck. The truck went off the side of the interstate and the driver called the fire department and fire trucks were on the scene within seven or eight minutes, which limited the damage to the back half or third of the trailer.

There is no official cause for the fire but one witness said that it appeared that the fire started in the vicinity of the back tire.

As for the packages, FedEx officials said the first priority was to make sure that the packages that weren’t damaged would be sent on their way so delivery would not be delayed any longer than necessary.

David Westrick a spokesman for FedEx Ground, said that because of the company’s tracking system, there’s no problem identifying the sender of the packages that were destroyed or damaged in the fire.

“We have already begun notifying these people and informing them what they have to do if they want to make a claim,” he said.

He added that persons who have not been called and want to make sure that their package is still on the way can go to fedex.com and track their packages. If a package ha been damaged, it will say so on the trackingsite.FedEx officials in Albuquerque said they thought that the packages that were probably damaged in the fire were those that were picked up by the truck last, which means that FedEx customers in eastern New Mexico and Oklahoma probably were the most affected by the fire.

Westrick said with 17,000 FedEx trucks on the road daily, the company has set up procedures on how to handle these kinds of situations. “Fortunately, it doesn’t happy very often,” he said.

A crew from KHBS-TV in Fort Smith, Ark., got to the scene and shot video of the FedEx truck. This can be viewed by going to 4029TV.com