Trash fire from Phoenix garbage truck causes it to drop the load in a neighborhood

Phoenix garbage truck dumps load due to trash fire

A Phoenix neighborhood woke up to a fiery surprise when a garbage truck crew had to drop a hot load in the middle of the street to prevent its truck from catching fire. FOX 10's Lindsey Ragas has the story.

PHOENIX - Video of a City of Phoenix garbage truck is making its rounds on social media after all the trash caught on fire.

Unfortunately, this problem is not rare for the City of Phoenix.

Last year, there were 12 fires in garbage trucks, which is why drivers are trained on how to handle the situation.

This is the view neighbors near Cholla Street and Desert Cove Avenue had on Monday morning:

"Our department is made immediately aware whenever any type of situation of that kind happens," said Veridiana Cervantes, a Zero Waste Analyst for the Public Works Department.

A pile of burning trash caused a city garbage truck driver to empty the load in the middle of the street, which is what they are trained to do in that situation.

"For the safety of the driver and in order to not damage anything in the surrounding area or the truck, they made sure that it's in an open space and 911 is called immediately. So the fire department goes in immediately and so it gets resolved very quickly," she explained.

The City of Phoenix refers to a pile of burning trash as a hot load. A hot load occurs when the wrong items are put in trash or recycling containers.

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"Electronics such as batteries, specifically lithium-ion batteries, pool chemicals, aerosol cans, anything like oil, anything that shouldn't be going in your recycling or trash, we actually have a designated separate collection for that called our Household Hazardous Waste collection program," Cervantes warned.

The city says every time there is a hot load, it's almost always one of those items.

"Unfortunately, we have had situations where we have lost trucks. That's just due to, you know, maybe potentially how big the fire was or how it was sparked," lamented Cervantes.

If you are unsure how to dispose of an item, the city offers a tool where you can go on their website, type in what you're trying to dispose of, and it will tell you if it goes in the garbage or recycling, or what third parties will take the item.