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Garbage truck fire stalls U.S. 278 traffic BY PETE NARDI Special to The Gazette (Published August 9, 2001) A Waste Management garbage truck's load caught fire Wednesday on U.S. 278, sparking a small brush fire and bringing late afternoon traffic to a standstill, authorities said. Smoldering debris fell off the truck and touched off a brush fire, said Lt. Toby McSwain of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. There were no injuries and no criminal charges as a result of the fires, he said. The westbound lanes of U.S. 278 were closed until about 5 p.m. because of the fires, backing up traffic for several miles, McSwain said. The truck was towed away, he said. The 10-by-50-foot brush fire on the westbound side of the road about 200 yards west of the Coastal Discovery Museum was extinguished at 3:45 p.m. by three Town of Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue Division firefighters, said firefighter Joe Gilling. The driver pulled the garbage truck onto the side of U.S. 278, across from the entrance to Windmill Harbour, where Bluffton Township Fire District firefighters used about five gallons of foam to extinguish the truck fire at about 3:45 p.m., said firefighter Joey Dembeck. "The fire was in the Dumpster part of the truck, and they couldn't open up the top," Dembeck said. "We had to get on top of it to put the foam in." Dembeck said the fire did not reach the truck's cab. Two engines, a tanker truck and eight Bluffton firefighters responded to the truck blaze, and put the fire out in about 10 minutes, he said. Dembeck said it was unclear what in the load caught fire. "We don't know what was burning," he said. Gilling said Hilton Head firefighters were "working under the presumption" that debris from the truck caused the brush fire. Some drivers reported seeing smoldering cardboard fall off the truck. "But I couldn't say for sure what exactly sparked the brush fire," Gilling said. "Not with any certainty. |
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