Fritos on Fire
A Frito Lay trailer burnt to the ground on Saturday in Clines Corners, New Mexico. There will be no shortage of chips, however, and no one was hurt.
Driver Mark Hobgood had hauled his last load out of the Frito Lay distribution center in Lubbock and was on his way back with empty cardboard boxes when the trailer he was pulling caught on fire. He was just a few miles north of I 40 on route 285 in New Mexico when the ABS light on the dash of his International lit up. He also noticed as slight loss of air in his tanks. He decided to pull over next to the New Mexico Department of Transportation lot just a mile north of I 40 rather than continuing down to the truck stop at the junction.
Good thing he did. By the time he stopped- intending only to check his glad hands or locate an air leak- the trailer tandem was already on fire. He was checking his glad hands when he smelled something burning. He investigated the smell and saw flames at his tandems.
He made two phone calls. First to 911 and second to his company. Then he dropped his trailer and pulled the tractor out from under it just as the trailer tires began to explode from the heat.
The rural location made for a lengthy response time- the fire department arrived an hour after the call came in. Other drivers stopped to help put out a grass fire and make sure the fire didn’t spread beyond the Frito Lay trailer.
New Mexico Department of Transportation employee Harold Urioste used a DOT John Deere front end loader to drop piles of dirt on the flames to help retard the fire’s spread before the fire trucks arrived. He also used the front end loader to tear down the burnt walls of the trailer so fire fighters could get water into the smoldering trailer.
Will Neufeld and Weston Curry from the Moriarty fire department were the first emergency personnel on scene. The Torrance County fire department and McIntosh volunteer fire department also responded, and the Flying C Wrecker Service came to tow the trailer away.
18th, 2007 at 12:55 am
just thought I’d let you know that I haven’t had any more incidents with “hot” trailers!! I am now employed by Halliburton Energy Services.