Update: Route 32 Closed Down After Truck Catches Fire [VIDEO]

A Waterford Public Works garbage truck caught fire this afternoon, closing down Route 32 at the intersection with Red Cedar Avenue.

The driver escaped without injury. With instruction from emergency responders, the driver dumped out the trash in the truck on a vacant lot on the side of Route 32. As of 3 p.m., a public works crew was still cleaning up the trash, and the road was still closed in that area.

The Story

At around 2 p.m. today, James Fisher, who lives at the intersection of Red Cedar Avenue and Route 32, saw smoke coming out of the back of a Town of Waterford garbage truck, which was at the intersection. The driver, who saw the smoke himself, pulled over on the side of Route 32, Fisher said.

Soon, firefighters got to the truck. They told the driver to dump the garbage in the back of the truck into an empty lot so they could put out the fire, Quaker Hill firefighter Monte Fielder said.

The driver tried to dump it all, but only about three-quarters of the trash came out before the hydraulic line likely burned and the bed got stuck, Fielder said. So, firefighters got on top of the truck and began spraying compressed air foam to put out the fire, Fielder said.

The fire was quickly extinguished, and then front-end loaders from public works were called in to pick up all the trash. The clean up was still going on at 3 p.m.

“This happens occasionally,” Fielder said. “Probably twice or three times a year in the area something like this happens.”