Rural Hospers, Iowa — A garbage truck fire was extinguished by the Sheldon Fire Company on Monday, October 10th, 2022.
According to Sheldon Assistant Fire Chief Brad Hindt, just before 2:00 p.m., they were called to put out a garbage truck on fire at the Northwest Iowa Landfill, three miles southwest of Sheldon.
Hindt says when they got there, firefighters found the load of garbage on fire. Firefighters hit the fire inside the truck with water to slow the fire as the driver tried to raise the back hopper of the garbage truck, but the hydraulic system did not work due to the fire.
Firefighters waited until the landfill employees could bring in heavy equipment to raise the back hopper of the truck and then used a backhoe to clean the rest of the garbage out of the truck.
He says they used water and foam to put out the fire and were on the scene for about two hours.
Hindt tells us that the most probable cause of the fire was that there was something hot in the garbage that had been picked up. He says the garbage truck received damage to the hopper box unit, but the truck was able to drive away.
He says the Sheldon Police Department, Sheldon Community Ambulance Team and employees of the landfill assisted with the response to the fire call.
