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Parkway North reopens after mail truck fire
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Part of the trailer of the mail truck that caught fire early Monday morning along Interstate 279. -
The cab of the mail truck was destroyed in the fire.
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The mail truck that caught fire on the Parkway North this morning, closing the northbound lanes for the better part of six hours, was a contractor carrying mostly small parcels and packages, a U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman said.
Spokeswoman Cathy Yarosky said the truck was en route from the Pittsburgh Processing and Distribution Center on the North Side to another distribution center in Warrendale.
"All of the mail was recovered and sent to the Warrendale distribution center where our employees are sorting through every piece now to determine what can be delivered to customers," she wrote in an email. "We will do our best to deliver what we can. The mail was mostly small parcels and packages, no First-Class letter mail and much of it was destined for areas outside of Pittsburgh."
The truck caught fire at about 3 a.m. north of the Bellevue-West View exit. Except for short periods when one lane of traffic got by, all motorists were forced to detour at the Bellevue exit while crews cleaned up the scene.
Traffic backups during the morning rush were about two miles before the highway reopened at 9:10 a.m.
First Published August 20, 2012 5:37 am
