Truckers praise IFD after massive fire
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Dozens of truck drivers were pulling into one of their favorite truck stops only to find it’s not there anymore.
A Flying J on the southwest side was destroyed after a three-alarm fire that prompted action from 100 firefighters.
The fire caused $4 million dollars in damage, but trucker Tanko Abdulai said it could have been worse. He was sleeping in his truck in a nearby lot.
“The fire was very great and it’s going up and up and up,” Abdulai said. “We were thinking something could happen to us.”
He put his truck in reverse to get away and hoped for the best. The smoke was visible for miles.
“Everybody’s safe and everything is okay,” he said.
Firefighters said 2,000 truckers pass through the stop every day.
Forty people were inside the building Sunday night and they all got out safely.
“God is always on his throne. Trust him,” Pam Mikel said.
Mikel is a trucker who parks her rig near the Flying J. She said she’s now trying to figure out if she can still park there, but she’s more concerned about the truck stop employees.
“I hate to see any business get destroyed, regardless of how it happened or what happened, because that’s somebody’s livelihood.”
A local man who operated a truck lettering business inside the building drove to the scene Monday to see what was left of his office. He declined an interview but a woman he was with called the fire “devastating.”