Photo courtesy of Tony Vaca.
A garbage truck caught fire just outside the Long Beach Veterans Affairs hospital Wednesday afternoon but no one was injured, according to fire officials.
The truck was exiting the facility on Channel Drive toward 7th Street when some combustible material ignited, said the hospital’s spokesman Richard Beam.
Firefighters responded to the fire at 12:32PM and found a heavily involved trash truck with fuel tanks on fire that were overheating, according to Long Beach Fire Department (LBFD) spokesman Brian Fisk.
Photo courtesy of LBFD.
“We pulled those [fuel tanks] off and then it burned to the hydraulic line, so we had to call out the USAR team with their torch and they had to literally cut back pieces of the truck portion of the trash truck to get access for overhaul and extinguishment,” Fisk said.
Beam said the trash consisted of office type items, not hazardous material.
No one was injured.
A total of seven fire units and 25 firefighters responded to the incident. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
Channel Dr./7th St. LBFD on scene of fully involved trash truck. Fire out and overhaul begins. USAR cutting holes for access with torch. pic.twitter.com/gaYLcUONMk
— Long Beach Fire (CA) (@lbfd) August 30, 2017