Garbage truck bursts into flames at Kirribilli as battery-bin fires spike across NSW.
Flames rise from the garbage truck fire on the Kirribilli foreshore on Monday, seen from across the harbour. Picture: Haig Gilchrist
By ANNA USHER
A garbage truck has gone up in flames under the Harbour Bridge at Kirribilli, the third to catch fire on NSW streets in just six days, as fire chiefs warn that a single household battery in the bin can set one ablaze.
The rig caught alight on Broughton St around lunchtime on Monday. Fire crews raced in and police shut the road while they fought the flames.
It landed the danger squarely on the lower north shore’s own kerb, and Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) says it is happening faster and faster across the state.
Two days later, on Wednesday morning, a City of Sydney crew found smoke pouring from one of their trucks on Wemyss Lane at Surry Hills about 8.40am. They ordered the driver to dump the whole burning load onto the road.
When the fire was out, firefighters raked through the rubbish and found the cause. A discarded e-bike battery, tossed into household garbage.
No one was hurt. Days earlier, on Friday, a truck fire so fierce its cause could never be found shut lanes on the M5 at Milperra.
Council workers shovel up the burnt rubbish tipped onto the road after the Kirribilli garbage truck fire. Picture: Haig Gilchrist.
Forty fires and counting
NSW has already seen at least 40 garbage truck fires this year. Last year there were 62.
Most are believed to start with lithium-ion batteries thrown into the household bin.
When the compactor crushes its load, the batteries are crushed too. That sets off “thermal runaway”, a reaction that feeds its own heat and can spread fire through the entire load.
‘It only takes one spark’
FRNSW and the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) want locals to drop dead batteries at free collection points under the “Never Bin A Battery” campaign, not bin them at home.
“Be fire safe and dispose of batteries responsibly through an authorised drop-off point, rather than risk fires in garbage trucks, tips and waste management centres,” FRNSW Acting Assistant Commissioner for Community Safety Greg Rankin said in a statement.
“Once they catch alight, lithium-ion batteries are difficult to extinguish because they generate their own heat source, oxygen and fuel.”
“Whether it’s a mobile phone, a laptop computer or tablet, a cordless vacuum cleaner, an electric toothbrush or even a vape, if they end up in a garbage truck and catch fire, it endangers the drivers and wider public.”
NSW EPA Director Sam Lewis said the risk was sitting in nearly every home.
“It might seem like an easy option to toss a battery into your bin at home, but you need to consider the flow-on effects,” Lewis said.
“It only takes one spark to start a garbage truck fire.”
Free battery drop-off points are listed at fire.nsw.gov.au and epa.nsw.gov.au.
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