Willoughby City Council Mayor, Tanya Taylor, has called on local residents to safely dispose of batteries, following a dangerous garbage truck fire at Northbridge.
The blaze occurred at 9.13am on 22 October, while the truck was performing routine waste collection duties at Northbridge after a lithium battery disposed of in garbage began smoking and subsequently combusted, setting on fire surrounding waste on board the truck.
The vehicle was promptly redirected to Tunks Park in nearby Cammeray – a location chosen for its open space and lack of overhead power lines, trees, or parked cars, minimising the risk to the surrounding area – where the driver of the truck successfully extinguished the fire before emergency services arrived, Council said in a statement.
Mayor Taylor said the event was a stark reminder of the need for safe battery disposal.Â
“I was shocked to hear of this event at Northbridge, however the sad reality is that such occurrences of garbage truck fires are becoming increasingly frequent around Sydney and beyond,” she said.
“Even very small household batteries like the AA and AAA size can cause havoc for our garbage trucks, starting fires within the compactors of trucks, which are very hard to extinguish.
“I’m calling on all residents of Willoughby to please learn about safe and responsible battery disposal and to follow Council’s advice on best practice. We do not want to see a repeat of this event, nor a more severe instance of these circumstances that could cost the environment or health or even lives here in our beautiful Willoughby.”
Council regularly promotes safe battery disposal, encouraging residents to collect unused batteries into a container and bring them to the Northern Sydney Community Recycling Centre.
