NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — A large pile of trash was set on fire inside a North Tonawanda recycling truck. Mayor Austin Tylec told 7 News that the blaze was sparked by a battery that was thrown into the trash.
“I would imagine it was a more sizable battery that someone threw in there, which caused a pretty sizable fire for our fire department to act swiftly on,” Tylec said.
WATCH: North Tonawanda mayor issues battery disposal reminder after sanitation truck fire
Sanitation workers dumped the burning materials on the side of Erie Avenue, where firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze safely.
Tylec added that nobody was hurt as a result of the fire, but that truck will need "a few hundred dollars" in repairs. Those repairs will be made internally at the city DPW.
“This won’t affect garbage pickup for anybody…We do have a backup truck while we repair this one,” Tylec said. “We put out a notice reminding people that you really shouldn’t be putting batteries in the garbage. The way the trucks work, they compress all the material in there, and it’s easily crushing some of these batteries, which could create a fire.”
In order to avoid these types of fires, the North Tonawanda city website has instructions on how to properly dispose of batteries of your own.
