Rubbish in the Rubbish Truck Mysteriously Caught on Fire Between Serangoon and Balestier Road

Usually, when a fire starts, it starts in the rubbish chute—not when the rubbish is already on the rubbish truck.

I mean, a rubbish truck on fire isn’t exactly what I would consider common, or even something that happens occasionally.

So imagine the surprise you would feel if you randomly saw a huge pile of trash on the road.

A huge pile of burning trash.

Rubbish in Rubbish Truck Catches Fire Mysteriously

On Wednesday (16 June), it was reported in Lianhe Zaobao that a fire had started among the rubbish in a rubbish truck.

The incident took place early in the morning, at a junction between Serangoon and Balestier Road.

According to Lianhe Zaobao, they had received a call from one of their readers notifying them of the incident. In his call, the reader explained that when he passed by the junction, he saw a rubbish truck stopped at the roadside. The rubbish had all fallen on the road, and there were also two police cars stopped at the side, said the reader.

When reporters from Lianhe Zaobao visited the scene, they found a rubbish truck stopped at the roadside: on the road behind the truck, there was a mountain of trash that had been burnt black at some parts.

Speaking to Lianhe Zaobao, the 47-year-old rubbish truck driver, Wang Lianfu, said that he had been collecting rubbish along the way from Jalan Sultan Road to Lavender Road after picking up the truck from Tuas around 5.30am.

According to him, he discovered that there was smoke suddenly coming from the back of the truck when he was driving at the junction around Serangoon Road.

“I saw from the side mirror that there was smoke rising from the back of the truck, and could also slightly smell the smoke. I felt that something wasn’t right, so I immediately stopped the truck to investigate,” said Mr Wang.

However, when he stopped the truck and unloaded the rubbish on board to see what had happened, a flame was suddenly kindled. Scared by how the trash heap suddenly started to burn, Mr Wang immediately called to notify the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

According to the pictures provided by Mr Wang, it was still dark out at the time of the incident, with very few cars on the road. The pictures showed smoke emerging from the pile of trash on the road.

Mr Wang says that it was lucky that the police and the SCDF arrived quickly to put out the fire. This prevented the fire from growing, he says.

Featured Image: Gorich/ Shutterstock.com