Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
City of Worland crews work to remove trash that was dumped in 23rd Street at the intersection of Sage Lane. Local emergency services crews responded to a report of a garbage truck whose contents had caught fire.
WORLAND – City of Worland crews are generally advised not to leave trash in the middle of the street -unless it is on fire.
At around 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, Washakie County Dispatch received a report that the garbage in a city garbage truck had caught fire.
By the time Washakie Ambulance, the Worland Police Department and Worland Fire Department arrived on the scene, the debris was in the street smoldering.
Worland Fire Chief Chris Kocher said that's exactly what city crews are trained to do.
Kocher said the driver picked up the garbage near the Sage Creek Apartments and dumped it in the street at the intersection of 23rd Street and Sage Lane after learning it was on fire.
"It's something we have talked about in the past to mitigate damage to trucks," Kocher said.
Kocher said crews are told that if the contents of their garbage trucks are on fire to, "Get it to an open area with few structures and values at risk and dump the load."
City of Worland Streets and Sanitation Supervisor Jeff Taylor said the driver of the truck called him and said that she had picked up a "hot load" or a trash bin that was on fire.
Taylor immediately instructed the driver to dump the load so that the truck would not catch fire.
"That's what we always try to do," said Taylor.
Taylor said that he has seen several hot loads picked up over the course of his time with the City of Worland, but he has never seen one picked up during the summer.
"We see a lot of people dumping hot ash from fires during the winter," Taylor said.
Kocher said the city employee's decision to drop the trash in the middle of the street prevents the city from losing a "very expensive truck" alongside the risk of losing a structure or an employee being injured.
Taylor said the value of the truck, which was purchased last fall, is well over $100,000.
After the fire department extinguished the dumped trash fire, city crews were busy getting the trash out of the street and taking it to its rightful place - the dump.
Another unrelated trash bin fire was reported in the same area about two hours later. Upon extinguishing the fire, Worland Police Department Captain Zack Newton said grass clippings and cigarette butts were discovered in the trash bin.
"It's just someone being irresponsible," Newton said. No criminal activity is suspected at this time, Newton said.
