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Georgetown Firefighters Battle Garbage Truck Fire
Wednesday morning July 14th just before 9 am the fire department was dispatched for a reported truck on fire near the VFW on Andover Street (Rte 133). Car 1, Chief Al Beardsley, was first on scene and found a large pile of garbage burning next to the VFW building. The operator of the trash truck owned by CGT of Londonderry, NH, advised the Chief he was hauling a load from Rowley to a location in North Andover for disposal when people driving by advised him the rear of the truck was burning. The next best thing was for the driver to pull into the VFW’s parking lot and dump the entire burning load. Firefighters were faced with a pile approximately 30 feet by 50 feet and 6 feet high burning about thirty feet to the right of the VFW’s building. First due Engine 1 was advised to lay a
supply line from a hydrant across the street from the parking lot. Georgetown and Boxford Police Departments assisted in closing down busy Route 133 for 30 minutes while crews used Class A foam to extinguish and overhaul the fire. The quick think on the part of the truck’s operator averted a more serious situation by ejecting the burning load in a relatively safe spot. As a precaution the Georgetown Highway Department brought in one of their pay loaders to help firefighters in breaking apart the burning pile of garbage. Georgetown Highway also brought in a dump truck filled with sand to create a dyke to stop the run-off of water into Lufkin’s Brook which feeds into the Georgetown water supply. To further check on the safety of operations Chief Beardsley had Health Agent Deb Rogers, Cons Com Agent Steve Przyjemski, and Water Superintendent Glenn Smith come to the scene. In addition, the state’s DEP agent was consulted for any issues regarding the environment. All in all, it
was a good operation and all the different Town and State Departments worked as a team to insure the environment wasn’t affected by the fire or water run-off. The trucking company contacted the Newburyport based environmental clean-up company Enpro to clean up the water and sand residue left from the fire. By 1:30 pm the area was cleaned up and you wouldn’t have known anything happened. While Georgetown engine companies were tied up at the scene Groveland sent its Engine 3 to cover calls from Georgetown’s Central Station. One very serious note from this fire came in the form of a discarded propane BBQ cylinder. Propane cylinders are never to be discarded and thrown into common trash. While fighting this fire Chief Beardsley noted that firefighters had several small explosions from exploding aerosol cans, but when we found the propane cylinder, people became more concerned. The cylinder, if exposed to heat can cause an
explosion where firefighters can be injured or killed by flying fragments. Luckily we got this out of the fire before it was too late. Chief Beardsley would like to remind everyone to return used propane cylinders to proper disposal companies and to never throw them out in regular trash.
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