Photo by Brian Nitzschke, Le Mars Fire-Rescue
On Sept. 21 at 2:52 p.m. the Le Mars Fire-Rescue Department was called to a garbage truck on fire. The fire was in the hopper. Upon arrival, firefighters encountered smoke coming from the hopper of the truck. Firefighters quickly suppressed the fire and the truck was moved and unloaded where firefighters extinguished the trash that was on fire. Firefighters were on the scene over an hour putting out the fire. The garbage truck had little to no damage. The origin of the fire was determined to be an improperly disposed lithium-ion battery. The most probable cause was a lithium-ion battery placed in a garbage can and when it was dumped in the garbage truck it caused the thermal runaway.