Fire damages 2,000 packages at UPS facility

Fire destroyed or damaged nearly 2,000 packages early Thursday on tractor trailers parked at the United Parcel Service sorting facility southwest of Chicago in Hodgkins, IL.

No injuries were reported but all of the approximately 1,000 employees on duty when the blaze broke out shortly after midnight were evacuated for about 30 minutes, a UPS spokeswoman says. The cause of the fire was undetermined.

Six or seven trailers were damaged but only two sustained significant harm, the spokeswoman says. Only minor smoke damage was reported to the 1.5-million-square foot UPS building. The fire was extinguished shortly after 3 a.m.

The facility’s afternoon sort was completed on time, she said, and workers were attempting to identify and contact the senders and recipients of the damaged packages. Most of the damaged parcels were bound by ground for New Jersey, Denver and DeKalb, IL, she said.