Operations & Training

PA Crews Douse Trash Fire Dumped by Garbage Truck Driver

July 15, 2020

Hazle Township crews quickly put out a pile of trash that had caught fire on a natural gas powered garbage truck and was dumped in the street by the driver.

By Amanda Christman

Source Standard-Speaker, Hazleton, Pa.

Hazle Township, PA, firefighters quickly extinguished a pile of burning trash that caught fire on a garbage truck and was dumped by the driver Tuesday.

Firefighters extinguished a heaping pile of refuse after a garbage hauler dumped the burning load in Butler Twp. around 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The garbage truck was in the area of 21 Faith Drive when the driver pulled into a paved turn around area to get the burning rubbish off his natural gas powered truck, said Kevin Tarapchak of Valley Regional Fire and Rescue.

It’s unclear how the refuse caught fire.

Conveniently enough, there was a fire hydrant adjacent to the spot where the garbage was unloaded.

At first Hazle Twp. firefighters were dispatched to the blaze erroneously on Louis Schiavo Drive; however, they quickly learned the truck was on Faith Drive, off the Airport Beltway near a residential rental building and a church.

It took only a few minutes for firefighters to extinguish the flames, Tarapchak said. Heavy equipment from Hazle Twp. was sent to move the steaming debris around afterward to ensure nothing was still on fire. The pile was approximately 8 feet high and 15 feet wide. The garbage company was responsible for removing it.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection was contacted due to water runoff streaming from the garbage.

Sugarloaf EMS also responded.

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