Driver forced to dump contents of garbage truck on suburban street after fire caused by resident’s ‘stupid mistake’
The fire was caused by a discarded battery
A garbage truck driver was forced to dump garbage on a suburban street after his truck caught fire.
The truck caught fire just after 10am in Padbury, northwest of Perth, WA, on Tuesday morning.
Fire service personnel rushed to the spot and managed to douse the fire.
Garbage spilled in Padbury, Perth after a battery caught fire in a garbage truck
A spokesperson for the City of Joondalup Council told Daily Mail Australia that ‘no injuries or damage were reported.
‘The driver’s alert behavior and subsequent actions prevented this from becoming a more serious incident,’ the spokesman said.
The fire was caused by a battery found in a keyboard that was dumped inside a resident’s curbside bin.
The error forced the driver to throw all the garbage on the road as per ‘standard industry practice’.
The garbage was removed after two hours but it is not clear who cleaned it.
Pictures shared on social media show garbage lying on the road opposite several houses.
One of the pictures showed a charred black keyboard causing the fire.
The batteries were found inside a keyboard that had been discarded in a resident’s bin
The spokesperson cautioned residents not to dispose of electronic waste with the rest of their household waste.
‘Lithium batteries and items are usually too small to detect in a load,’ they say.
According to recent statistics, 3,300 tons of lithium-ion battery waste is generated annually.
Batteries contain harmful substances and minerals such as mercury, cadmium and lead and can contaminate land and groundwater if they end up in landfills.
They should be placed in bins designed for disposal or, in many states of Australia, now disposed of at battery recycling centres.
Last month, a garbage truck caught fire after a lithium battery was mistakenly dumped in a garbage bin.
Superintendent Adam Dewberry from NSW Fire and Rescue, told ABC Radio Sydney that fires caused by batteries are occurring more often because of damage to garbage trucks.