So this happened yesterday - and a reminder

[dibbles]

When I looked out the window at some point yesterday morning I saw fire trucks and police cars and billowing smoke in our normally very quiet neighborhood. This is what happened. Our trash pick up day was yesterday. While the truck was still in our cul de sac the driver heard popping noises. They are instructed, if they hear this or see smoke, flames, etc., to dump the whole load and move the truck out of the area ASAP. This is exactly what they did. I talked to one of the firemen, and they were pretty sure the cause was lithium batteries that were tossed in someone's trash. He said the pile was burning pretty big when they arrived. We don't have hydrants, so they used foam to put it out. Fortunately nobody was hurt and there was no damage to property. The fire department stayed until the smoldering had completely stopped and the waste management company sent a bobcat and truck to clean up the mess.

I just thought this might be a good reminder to be careful of what/how you dispose of things. Aside from thinking about what you are putting in the landfill that really could/should be recycled, in this case someone could have been badly injured. Our waste management trucks run on natural gas.

 

[BWt]

Wow. Thank you for the reminder. Fortunately no one injured.

 

[Relle]

That happens here, so I knew about the batteries.

 

[AliOop]

So glad you and the trash collectors are ok, @dibbles!

 

[justjacqui]

That has happened 3 times in the last year in my local area . We have free battery recycling at our waste management facility so it is just laziness causing this to happen.

Glad everyone is OK.

 

[dibbles]

That has happened 3 times in the last year in my local area . We have free battery recycling at our waste management facility so it is just laziness causing this to happen.

Glad everyone is OK.

The last time I noticed, our local library has a collection box for batteries. My hubby wears hearing aids so we have a lot of those batteries that need to be recycled. We take batteries in a couple of times a year.

 

[Michelle La]

When I looked out the window at some point yesterday morning I saw fire trucks and police cars and billowing smoke in our normally very quiet neighborhood. This is what happened. Our trash pick up day was yesterday. While the truck was still in our cul de sac the driver heard popping noises. They are instructed, if they hear this or see smoke, flames, etc., to dump the whole load and move the truck out of the area ASAP. This is exactly what they did. I talked to one of the firemen, and they were pretty sure the cause was lithium batteries that were tossed in someone's trash. He said the pile was burning pretty big when they arrived. We don't have hydrants, so they used foam to put it out. Fortunately nobody was hurt and there was no damage to property. The fire department stayed until the smoldering had completely stopped and the waste management company sent a bobcat and truck to clean up the mess.

I just thought this might be a good reminder to be careful of what/how you dispose of things. Aside from thinking about what you are putting in the landfill that really could/should be recycled, in this case someone could have been badly injured. Our waste management trucks run on natural gas.

I’m sorry this happened and very glad no-one was hurt. It feels like every office here (England, UK) has one of those plastic towers to drop old batteries in to be sent to recycling, so you don’t even have to make a special trip to the dump. It’s made very easy. Is it different where you are?

 

[MomInWA]

Oh! I was unaware. I’ll change my ways from here out. Thanks for sharing!