REGINA — A routine garbage collection run took an unexpected turn when smoke was spotted coming from a Loraas Disposal truck near the Red Lobster restaurant on Albert Street.
But thanks to a quick decision by the driver, what could have become a much larger vehicle fire instead ended as a relatively minor incident in a Regina alley.
Regina Fire & Protective Services Deputy Chief Gord Hewitt says crews were called around 11 a.m. on Aug. 8 after receiving reports of a garbage or loader truck on fire.
When firefighters arrived, they discovered the truck itself was not burning. Instead, some of the material inside was smoking.
The driver then unloaded the contents into the alley behind the Red Lobster, keeping the smoking material away from the truck and nearby structures.
Hewitt says that decision helped prevent the situation from becoming more serious.
"When they noticed there was something smoking in there, they did a great job just getting the contents out in the alley and keeping it, preventing it from impacting any structure around," he said.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the smouldering material.
Hewitt says a truck attendant was also involved in helping deal with the situation, and the fire was brought under control without damage to the vehicle and nobody was injured.
The cause of the fire remains unknown.
"I don't have a cause," he said. "It'd be hard to determine a cause on something like that when materials were transported around like that."
Hewitt says the driver's response was exactly what was needed.
"Good on the company and good on the driver for realizing there was smoke and dumping the contents out," he said.
Hewitt says it was ultimately a minor fire, but one that could have been considerably more difficult if the smoking material had ignited inside the garbage truck.
