Garbage truck catches fire in S. Lake Tahoe

A garbage truck on Oct. 20 caught fire at the South Tahoe Refuse yard. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

A fire Tuesday at South Tahoe Refuse destroyed the cab and possibly more of one of the garbage trucks.

“To be isolated to that truck is amazing,” John Marchini, who runs the South Lake Tahoe garbage company, said.

The fire was reported about 6:30pm Oct. 20. It had been parked in the truck bay after picking up trash earlier in the day. The doors to the building were closed at the time the fire started.

The sprinkler system worked efficiently, which kept the fire to the truck. Other vehicles and the building were not damaged.

“It could be the regeneration system, or could have been trash that accumulated or could be an electrical short,” Fire Chief Jeff Meston told Lake Tahoe News.

He estimated the damage at being $100,000. Meston said the hydraulics were damaged and maybe the engine. A rig had to be used to pull the truck out of the building.

New, these types of vehicles cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The motor is behind the cab and in between the box where the trash is put. The motor area as well as the cab was totally blackened.

Marchini was told by fire officials the blaze did not start in the cab. He is hoping the bulk of the vehicle will be salvageable. It will be taken to the mechanical shop Wednesday morning.

With this truck out of service, it will not impact trash collection. The rest of the fleet will be on the streets at 5am for commercial service and 7am for residential.

Marchini told Lake Tahoe News fires have been rare at STR.