DEWITT – Local crews were able to keep a garbage fire from wildly spreading in DeWitt earlier today.
The blaze began on the back of a front-loading Syracuse Haulers Waste Removal truck, which then dumped the still-burning trash onto the slightly snow-covered pavement before being pulled away. That quick maneuver, East Syracuse Fire Chief Chris Shields said, prevented what would have been costly damage to the truck.
According to Shields, the flaring pile was left on the outer edge of the DeWitt Town Center behind Crunch Fitness. Firefighting crews were subsequently dispatched to the scene on Erie Boulevard East at 7:19 a.m.
East Syracuse Fire Department Engine 4 went through all 750 gallons of water stored in their tank in an attempt to snuff out the flames, but it was not enough, Shields said.
After clearing a separate call in the town, Engine 14 from the DeWitt Fire District soon arrived to add another 750 gallons while East Syracuse’s engine tapped into a hydrant in the plaza to refill.
“The fire was still burning in the center of it, so we had to break it all up,” Shields said. “You just keep putting water to it and swooshing it around.”
The departments have not yet revealed what exactly caused the fire, but it is suspected that the garbage truck picked up a dumpster containing a heated load on the verge of igniting.
The pile full of mostly cardboard, plastic and other recyclables took about half an hour to fully douse, but it did not spread to the tall grass nearby, Shields said.
