The Moncton Fire Department credits a quick thinking driver for preventing a garbage fire from engulfing his truck.
Platoon Chief Brian Gaudet says around 10:30 this morning, they were called to Halifax Street about a truck fire.
He says the garbage within the truck had caught fire, and the driver dumped it on the road.
“We’ve got a mixture of garbage, could be anything from cardboard, to clippings off of a tree or something like that,” says Gaudet. “In terms of finding a cause, it could be nearly impossible at this point.”
He says fires like this don’t happen often but “it’s not new for us, we go to garbage bin fires fairly routinely, on the odd occasion we’ll have a garbage truck that catches fire, it’s not normal, but it’s not something we haven’t seen before.”
Garbage truck driver dumps load after discovery of fire on board. MFD attended corner of Halifax & Elizabeth Streets earlier this morning. pic.twitter.com/jiymG0SnbU
— Wade Perry (@wadeperry1969) August 2, 2017
Gaudet says burning garbage does pose a challenge.
“The fire can be deep inside the pile, so not only do you have what’s burning on the surface, and we can knock that down,” explains Gaudet “But we’ve got some hot spots deep inside the pile that we need to pull apart and work away at, and that takes a while.”
Gaudet says the driver made a wise decision, and probably saved the truck.
