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More than 200,000 eggs were lost Wednesday afternoon in a fire of the trailer portion of a semi-tractor-trailer near Silver Lake, but the driver and the semi truck escaped without injury or damage.
Silver Lake Volunteer Fire Department Chief John Conley said they were called out to the fire at 2:42 p.m. Wednesday on CR 600W, just north of Ind. 14.
Derek Shea, the driver of the semi-tractor-trailer hauling eggs for Happy Eggs, reported having issues with his ABS on the trailer. He called a maintenance man and parked off Ind. 14 because of the brake issues, Conley said. About a half hour after parking, waiting on the maintenance man and while on the phone with him, a tire blew and the flames began.
Conley said Shea got the semi-truck away from the trailer so the trailer was the only thing that caught fire. It was a total loss.
While Conley said they got the fire under control in approximately a half hour, the firefighters were on scene for over 1-1/2 hours. Part of that reason they remained on scene was to wait for Reicherts to tear apart the egg carts, which had melted together, so the firefighters could tackle the heat in the middle of the melted crates and eggs. Conley said he could still hear the eggs “popping” in the middle.
Burket Fire Department provided a tanker, grass truck and manpower.
