C.W. McClain cuts the remains of a tractor-trailer that was carrying 00,000 in quarters that burned Tuesday near Fort Payne, Ala. The truck, carrying 16 tons of newly minted Kansas quarters, caught fire and spilled its cargo on the highway.

Hammondville, Ala. ? A truck carrying tons of quarters caught fire Tuesday and spilled most of them on a highway, where workers used heavy equipment, shovels and buckets to scoop up the singed coins.

The driver said the truck carried 39,000 pounds of new Kansas quarters, part of the U.S. Mint’s state coin series, that were worth some $800,000, said Police Chief Michael Putnam.

The rear of the armored truck bound for Birmingham from the Philadelphia mint caught fire in the pre-dawn hours on Interstate 59 in northeast Alabama, Putnam said.

“It’s kind of a surprise when you pull up on a fire call at 2:30 in the morning on the interstate, and there are armed guards around the fire,” he said.

Jim Starr Jr., a truck rider armed with a handgun for protection, said a grease fire ignited a rear tire, sparking a larger blaze that destroyed the trailer. Putnam said the coins were on metal pallets in bags that burned, spilling the quarters on the road.

Police called in a front-end loader to scoop up the coins and deposit them in buckets. The road was partly closed for 12 hours, Putnam said.