Garbage truck catches fire in Wyndham Vale

CFA members put out the pile of waste that caught fire on a Wyndham Vale street on Friday morning. (Wyndham Vale CFA) 389695_01

Brighton Avenue in Wyndham Vale remains blocked to traffic after a garbage truck caught on fire while collecting hard rubbish on Friday morning.

Firefighters arrived on the scene at about 10.40am on Friday February 16 where they found a pile of waste on fire in the middle of the street where it had been dumped by the garbage truck.

The truck belonging to Four Seasons Waste remained nearby while fire crews brought the blaze under control and prevented it from spreading to a nearby shed.

Lieutenant Mark Ogluszko from Wyndham Vale CFA said the waste pile was well alight by the time they arrived.

“To get it under control only took about 5 minutes but we had to break it down and there was a lot of heat generated,” said Lt Oglusko of the fire which burnt tree branches, metal waste and hard rubbish

that was being collected on behalf of Wyndham council.

Lt Oglusko said it was too early to determine how the fire started or why the driver dumped it on the road.

“That was already done when we arrived, he’s done that of his on free will,” he said, adding that by doing so the driver had prevented the fire from spreading through the rest of the truck and making the situation much more dangerous.

No one was injured during the blaze and apart from some melted wheelie bins, there was no major damage.

Firefighters left the scene by noon, leaving Four Seasons Waste staff to clean up the debris and clear the site.

Cade Lucas.