Smoking Gympie garbage truck dumps load on road

The driver of a Gympie council recycling truck was forced to dump his whole load when he saw smoke billowing from the back of the truck.

A Gympie garbage truck was forced to dump its load on the road to stop a fire spreading in the truck.

A Gympie council rubbish truck was forced to dump a load of recyclable waste on the road at North Deep Creek this morning to avoid a fully-fuelled truck fire breaking out.

The truck’s driver called for help when he noticed smoke heaping from the back of the truck near the intersection of North Deep Creek and Wood Roads about 7.30am.

Recyclable rubbish dumped on the road after smoke was seen billowing from the back of a Gympie garbage truck at North Deep Creek on Thursday morning. Photo: Kristen Camp

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He was forced to dump the load on the road so firefighters could stop the small fire spreading, Gympie police senior constable Alistair Harris said.

“Thankfully the truck driver was aware pretty quickly when he saw smoke billowing out of his truck,” he said.

“Someone might have put something in that shouldn’t have been in the recycling.”

While he could only speculate, he said a battery could be the cause.

The truck was superficially damaged when something in the waste load caught fire this morning at North Deep Creek. Photo: Kristen Camp

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He did not believe there was any environmental damage from the dumping and damage to truck was superficial, he said, with the heat melting the paint from the side of the truck.

The Queensland Ambulance Service was on standby, but there were no reported injuries from incident.

Gympie Regional Council would be responsible for the clean up, a QFES spokeswoman said.

The road remained open during the incident.

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