It was a bit of a shock but luckily went off with a hiss. The driver of a garbage truck received a warning from his co-driver shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon on the Microweg in Nijmegen: ‘Our garbage truck is on fire.’
She saw smoke coming out of the back of the truck. The driver responded immediately; he drove the truck off the company premises and unloaded the contents of his car at a few parking bays along Lagelandseweg a little further on. To prevent the truck itself from catching fire. And to have better access to the burning material.
Company personnel first tried to extinguish the burning and smoldering waste mountain themselves. But that did not work out. The fire brigade was then called in, who finished the job after which the mess had to be cleared up again.
Police closed off the street during the extinguishing operation. It is not clear how the fire in the garbage truck started. It is therefore not certain whether heating was caused by the heat in the car.
An insurance expert previously stated that fires in garbage trucks can also be caused by, for example, batteries, old telephones and accumulators ending up in the residual waste. Items of this type, which should actually be presented separately as hazardous waste, can also cause fires.
The truck was slightly damaged by the fire.