It is not everyday you see a trash truck on fire in your neighborhood.
But early this morning, the Peterbuilt automated side loader, driven by an L.A. County Dept. of Public Works employee, started spewing black and white smoke.
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About five or six tons of recycled trash got dumped onto the street at Walsh and Mascagni, and the Fire Dept. put it out quickly with a foam retardant.
Erwin Holloway, supervisor for the Solid Resources South Collection Division, said, “Something inside the hold body ignited. Usually, it’s bleach or something like that. It got smothered inside, got compacted and started a fire.
“Unfortunately, we have to unload the whole load to be sure it gets put out. But I am glad my driver is okay and the truck is all right.”
The truck was said to be valued at $100,000, and this one was about 10 years old.
Mr. Holloway said such an incident doesn’t happen very often.
City crews who arrived shortly afterward with a skip loader and a couple of dump trucks cleaned up the whole mess.
Ms. Ottalini may be contacted at shooterslicker@yahoo.com
