[Post Office Delivery Trucks Keep Catching on Fire](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3ezx4/post-office-delivery-trucks-keep-catching-on-fire): by Aaron Gordon for VICE > About 8 months ago, I got a handwritten letter through the mail on a blank piece of paper with one sentence: “File a FOIA with USPS for LLV truck fires.” 4,000 pages of documents later, here’s the story > > Aaron Gordon via [Twitter](https://twitter.com/A_W_Gordon/status/1280508541594488832) This is some [Deep Throat](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbis-no-2-was-deep-throat-mark-felt-ends-30-year-mystery-of-the-posts-watergate-source/2012/06/04/gJQAwseRIV_story.html) style reporting. > In 125 cases, the trucks were so thoroughly destroyed that the investigators were unable to identify a probable fire cause. Of the remaining 282 fires where investigators could identify a likely cause, the only pattern was that there was no pattern. > > The fires occurred in hot and cold climates, at the beginning and ends of shifts, in the battery compartments, dashboards, and fuel pumps, and in vehicles that had both been recently maintained and were overdue for a check-up. They occurred on rural routes and city streets all over the country. > > Although one engineering report found occasional lax maintenance practices that may have resulted in an increase in the number of fires, the most likely explanation for the fires is that the trucks are simply too old and are deteriorating on the road. Besides being crazy, this story caught my attention because I personally know a mailperson. Ironic that the initial tip was sent using the USPS. It seems like it could have burst into flames before Gordon could have even read it.