Chemicals smolder in trash

Karen Zekan

Thursday, June 11, 1998 | 11:12 a.m.

Silver State Disposal Service doubts it can track down who illegally threw out suspected pool chemicals which reacted inside a curbside pickup truck Wednesday.

Silver State officials have determined that the driver picked up the chemicals in a residential area near Tropicana Avenue and Topaz Street about 8:30 a.m. It took what spokesman Keith Lynam estimated to be only a short time before the chemicals started smoldering and the truck started smoking.

The driver notified authorities of the brewing fire and was met by firefighters shortly after pulling into a nearby deserted area, Lynam said.

Firefighters followed the garbage truck to an area near Cheyenne Avenue where Lynam said the smoldering trash was extinguished.

"People need to know that putting (chemicals) in the trash is illegal and it's dangerous. There are people inside those trucks," Lynam said. "We're trying to track down who did this ... There's a very minimal chance that we will find out who it is."

Wednesday's smoldering load was one of many recent dangerous "hot loads" Silver State has encountered.

One day last month an entire garbage truck caught fire and burned to the ground -- even its wheels melted off -- after a trash collector picked up a load that included a smoker-type barbecue with still smoldering coals from a northwest valley neighborhood.

"It happened on a day when we had 40 mph winds blowing," Lynam said. The driver took the truck to a vacant lot and was able to escape the flames. There was little, however, that firefighters could do to save the truck.

"It was very dangerous. An entire neighborhood could have gone up, especially considering how windy it was."

In an average week, Lynam estimated that Silver State picks up as many as three "hot loads."