A load of burning rubbish had to be dumped at a local park, after several fires broke out in the back of a garbage truck on Monday morning.
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Crews from the South Tamworth Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) station rushed to a park on Hillvue Road, near Robert Street in South Tamworth, just before 9:30am to extinguish the flames.
Firies found rubbish had caught on fire in the back of a garbage truck, and the driver had been forced to dump it at a nearby park.
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Tamworth FRNSW Superintendent Tom Cooper said two fire trucks and a tanker full of firefighting foam and water answered the emergency call for help.
He said once the rubbish was piled in the park, one team worked to put out "a few" minor fires inside the garbage compartment of the truck, while the others worked on the dumped contents.
"We knocked the fire down and were searching for hotspots ... our crews went over it with a thermal imaging camera and then Tamworth Regional Council arrived with an excavator to break up the pile of rubbish, so we could finally extinguish it," Superintendent Cooper said.
It is understood no one was injured in the incident, and the truck came out okay too.
"It was a good save, they managed to save the truck," Superintendent Cooper said.
The flames were fully doused before 11am, and council was cleaning up the site.
It is understood the fire was not suspicious, and was probably caused by a cigarette butt that hadn't been properly put out, according to Superintendent Cooper.
"When you think about that, it's lucky it ended up in a rubbish truck and not in someone's waste bin," he said.
"This is a reminder to everyone that when you're emptying ashtrays, make sure the cigarette butts are properly out.
"If this had have happened in someone's house, it could have been a very different story."
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
