Courtenay Fire Department personnel were called out to extinguish a fire that had broken out in an Emterra garbage truck Tuesday evening.
“It was in the back of the truck so we don’t know [how it started],” said deputy chief Dennis Henderson. “It was in the hopper of the truck itself.”
There were no injuries as a result of the fire, which was attended to by about a dozen firefighters.
“It was [extinguished] fairly quickly - it was contained to the back of the truck,” said Henderson, adding there were some challenges. “The hydraulic lines had burned so we couldn’t open up the inside to extinguish it. So we had to cut it open. Once we had open access to the hopper, we were able to extinguish it.”
“While still unknown, the fire was likely caused by an item being disposed of in a residential recycling bin that should not have been there,” said Janice Rendflesh, corporate communications for Emterra, in an emailed statement. “Emterra is asking residents to #RecycleRight! Flammable and hazardous material like oil residue, propane and butane tanks should not be disposed of in curbside recycling.
“If you are not sure if an item belongs in your recycling bin, you can quickly search for it using RecycleBC’s waste wizard: https://recyclebc.ca/.”