TA Express Truck Stop burning in Biggs Junction Tuesday morning, March 7
Photo of TA Express on fire this morning, March 7, 2023. Photos courtesy the Sherman County Sheriff’s Office
Editors Note - incorrect information appeared in this story earlier this morning. We regret the error.
By Tom Peterson
Update: 8:30 a.m., March 7
A quick response from all Sherman County firefighters from Grass Valley to Rufus, quickly put out a Truck stop Fire in Biggs Junction this morning, March 7.
Sherman County Sheriff Brad Lohrey said no one was injured and a lack of wind kept the blaze from spreading.
And getting the fire out was no easy task as there are no fire hydrants in Biggs.
Firefighters used tankers and quickly erected a temporary pool from which engines could draft water to shoot on the fire.
Lohrey said ashes were falling from the blaze up to a half mile away.
None of the fuel stations caught fire, he said, noting the fire was contained to the commercial building on the site.
“This could have been way worse,” he said.
A preliminary investigation into the blaze has led inspectors to believe a laundry drier was the origination point of the fire.
Firefighters were in mop-up mode at the time CCCNews Interviewed Lohrey at 8:30 a.m.
The Sherman County Sheriff’s Office posted photos of the TA Express truck stop on fire in Biggs Junction around 6:30 a.m. this morning, March 7.
The post asks drivers and onlookers to avoid the area so that firefighters and emergency responders can do their jobs safely.
Biggs Petroleum LLC, based in Salem, has owns the TA Express franchise and is built the competing $13-million truck stop just a bit farther west of Pilot on Biggs- Rufus Highway.
Biggs Petroleum is owned by three Oregonians, Tony Singh, Nirmal Virk and Don Sidhu, who have similar businesses in and around Salem and Albany, Sidhu said.
The site has 14 fueling islands – seven for vehicles and seven for semi-trucks. A 54,000-gallon storage tank has been installed for diesel.
It provides parking for some 40 more semi-trucks.
The 9- acre site also includes 12,500, of retail space that will house showers, bathrooms, a Chevron convenience store and several restaurants. It also has an RV dump site.
Krispy Krunchy Chicken was available at the location.
