Garbage truck fire
Posted Aug 27, 2010 07:35:38 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A 570 News reporter can expect to occasionally cover the story of a fire, but it’s not often he actually spots it and makes the 911 call.
A garbage truck caught fire somehow this morning, and the driver was apparently oblivious to the smoke and flames as he drove his truck past 570’s Mark Douglas, parked on the University of Waterloo campus working on an unrelated story.
Mark and several other people spotted the truck, with smoke and flames shooting out the back, at about 6:50 this morning as it was turning left onto Columbia St. W. at Hagey Boulevard.
Mark was in the 570 News cruiser at the time and chased the truck across Columbia, honking his horn and trying to catch the driver’s attention, while describing what was happening to a 911 dispatch operator.
The truck proceeded along Columbia at a normal pace, past Westmount Rd. N., right up to Fischer Hallman Rd. N., where Mark managed to catch up to the truck at a red light.
Mark rolled down his window and shouted to the driver who pulled into the loading dock area behind the Sobey’s, and dumped a full load of trash completely engulfed in flame.
Waterloo Fire and Rescue arrived on the scene moments later and easily doused the flames.
The driver told Mark he was feeling a bit shaken up, but declined to comment when asked when he realized his truck was on fire.
He would only say he was looking for an empty lot to dump his garbage.
Parking lots on UW campus at the north end of the road ring, where Mark spotted the truck, were almost completely empty at the time.
There were no injuries.
