HODGKINS, Ill. (AP) -- A fire early Thursday outside a UPS package-sorting center damaged several hundred parcels and forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 workers, company officials said.
Seven trailers on the loading dock caught fire, but no one was injured, UPS spokesman Mike Johl said.
The fire never spread to the 1.5-million-square-foot Chicago Area Consolidation Hub, which employs 8,000 workers and handles 2 million packages a day during the holiday season, Johl said.
The company estimated fewer than 2,000 packages were damaged or destroyed, most of them bound for Denver, New Jersey and DeKalb, Ill.
"UPS is contacting the customers whose packages were affected so that alternative arrangements can be made, and we are sincerely apologizing for the inconvenience," UPS said.
Normal operations had resumed by midday.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
Atlanta-based UPS has estimated that one in every 10 packages it delivers worldwide between Thanksgiving and Christmas passes through the center in Hodgkins, 10 miles outside Chicago.
posted on December 16, 2004 02:36:50 PM new
I just watched a report on this station this morning on CNN where they were talking about the high volume and security measures it has in place.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on December 16, 2004 03:11:24 PM new
Fenix--I saw that report, too. What horrified me was that truckload of packages and seeing how crushed the ones on the bottom were. The report was interesting to me--and then I too heard the report about the fire. I'd hate to have a package damaged that way!
