Disposable barbecue sparks fire in recycling bin lorry – and sees …

The blaze took hold in an East Hampshire District Council truck in Clanfield on Friday. It caused delays to collections with hundreds of bins missed – these were due to have been caught up with today.

A council spokesperson said: ‘A crew working in Clanfield spotted smoke billowing from the back of the collection vehicle. They quickly called the fire service who controlled the fire at the scene and then followed the truck back to our Petersfield depot.

A disposable barbecue caused a fire in a council recycling lorry on Friday Picture: East Hampshire District Council

‘There the entire 10-tonne collection, almost a full load, was tipped and then doused with water to ensure the fire was properly extinguished.

‘Once wet it cannot be recycled, it was loaded back into the truck by a telehandler and was sadly sent for incineration.’

Council leader Richard Millard said: ‘It's really important that people are very careful when they throw away disposable barbecues. The coals can stay hot and smouldering for several days and when mixed with the dry paper and cardboard in our recycling lorry it can easily reignite.

‘Thankfully this incident wasn't as serious as it could have been and no-one was hurt, but it has meant a heavy delay in collections thanks to one person's stupidity.’