Rubbish truck forced to dump blazing load at Northcote car park

A quick-thinking garbage truck driver was forced to ditch its rubbish in the car park of a Northcote swimming pool this morning after the load caught on fire.

A garbage truck has been forced to dumping flaming rubbish outside a Melbourne aquatic centre this morning.

The driver noticed the fire in the back of his truck while near the Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre shortly before 8am, the pool told the Herald Sun.

“He didn’t really have much other choice” than to pull into the centre’s car park and dump it, aquatic centre employee Harrison Reid said.

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A rubbish truck forced to dump its load outside the Northcote aquatic centre this morning. Picture: Tracey Linguey

Video taken of the blaze shows the sizeable pile of garbage burning near a parked car.

Northcote resident and Herald Sun Saturday editor, Tracey Linguey, saw the rubbish truck pull into the car park with smoke coming out the back.

“(The driver) drove the truck around the car park a little but and the smoke was getting thicker,” she said.

“And then he’s opened the back of the rubbish truck and all the rubbish has spilt out onto the carpark.

“At the point the rubbish was on fire and it got out of control really quickly — the minute he opened the back door it went up.”

She said strong winds in the area meant there was “a real danger the embers were going to go up into gum trees trees around the car park and tennis court.”

But the Metropolitan Fire Brigade said crews were on the scene within minutes and quickly extinguished the blaze.