Cooroy garbage truck bursts into flames on residential street

A garbage truck’s flaming contents has created an extraordinary spectacle in a sleepy Sunshine Coast town, when the load had to be dumped onto the street.

Cooroy locals had their Monday mornings turned upside down when a garbage truck burst into flames in the middle of town. Picture: Lizzie Myers/Facebook

Residents of a small Sunshine Coast town had their Monday morning turned upside down when a garbage truck burst into flames in the middle of the street.

Two Queensland Fire Department crews were called to Garnett and Maple streets in Cooroy about 9am after reports of a vehicle on fire.

Upon arrival, firefighters discovered an item in the garbage truck had caught fire and the blaze quickly spread to the rest of the rubbish.

A QFD spokesman said the truck had to dump out its load on the street to avoid making the situation more dangerous or destroying the entire vehicle.

“It became quite a large fire,” he said.

At 9.45am, the blaze was still burning but firefighters were working to put it out, the spokesman said.

He said garbage trucks caught fire “more than you would think” and crews were well-versed in these situations.

Cooroy residents were shocked to see the fire.

Lizzie Myers shared an image of the roaring flames to Facebook, saying she was thankful everyone got out of the situation safe.

Other locals shared worries, questions and guesses of what caused the fire.

“Hope everyone is safe,” Cheryl Cox said.

“I could see the smoke! What happened?” Judy Gore asked.

“Looks like someone’s lithium battery ended up where it shouldn’t be, could even be a discarded vape,” Andrew Simonsen said.

The item that caused the fire is yet to be confirmed, though QFD suspects it may have been a battery.

Originally published as Cooroy garbage truck bursts into flames on residential street