The Park City Fire District is reminding community members to be careful of what they throw away after a Republic Services garbage truck driver noticed smoke coming from the vehicle, forcing him to dump the burning load in the former BeeHive Home parking lot, now the Wasatch Crest residential treatment facility.
Park City Fire Public Information Officer Mike Owens said the driver quickly pulled over and safely dumped the garbage once he noticed something was burning. Firefighters were paged out around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday. A fire truck and a fire engine were also on scene.
As of 2:30 p.m., crews were still working to extinguish the fire. They left the scene around 4 in the afternoon.
Owens said there is no threat to structures in the area. He didn’t speculate as to what caused the fire, but said there were a lot of construction materials — or other items that were improperly disposed — in the load. Park City Fire isn’t investigating the blaze because it’s not considered “suspicious.”
“Batteries should be recycled when possible. Oily rags must not be thrown in the garbage,” Owens said. “If you have any questions on how something should be disposed of, please contact your garbage collection company or the Park City Fire District.”