Amazon Truck Catches Fire Over Vail Pass Sunday, Firefighters Pull Amazon Packages Out

By Anna Maria Basquez

VAIL, Colo. (CBS4) -- An Amazon semi-truck caught fire Sunday late afternoon, backing up traffic at least two hours on Vail Pass.

"It was a semi-truck that caught its rear brakes on fire, and it got into the back of the semi and caused some of the contents in the semi-truck to catch fire," said Battalion Chief Jake Savannah, of Vail Fire & Emergency Services.

One-third of the contents of the 53-foot semi heading westbound at the 181 mile marker on Vail Pass was destroyed.

"When they initially got on scene, the rear tires of the semi-truck were fully involved and it was going into the contents of what the semi-truck was carrying," Savannah told CBS4. "We were able to get a good initial knock on the fire and stop it from having the full entire rig on fire. Basically, it just burnt the back third of the truck, and then at that point, the fire was under control within the first 15 to 20 minutes. What took longer was we had to pull all the contents out of the semi to make sure it was fully extinguished."

The call came in at about 5 p.m. Westbound Vail Pass was closed for two hours.