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Recycling truck fire on Saanich street leads to morning road closure

Driver took ‘quick action,’ no injuries reported, firefighter says
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Quadra Street south of Cloverdale Avenue was closed after a commercial vehicle caught fire Wednesday morning.

Saanich emergency crews were called to the 3900-block of Quadra Street just before 9 a.m. on March 24 and found the driver of a recycling truck stopped at the side of the road.

READ ALSO: Truck driver escapes injury after engine suffers smoky breakdown in Saanich

Saanich police closed Quadra Street to traffic while fire crews hosed down the “moderately engulfed” vehicle, said Sgt. Damian Kowalewich of the Saanich Police Department.

The fire was in the plastic recycling half of the truck bin, said Capt. Norm Westhaver of the Saanich Fire Department. The other half contained paper, he added.

READ ALSO: Greater Victoria fire departments restrict duties in light of COVID-19

The driver took “quick action” after smelling smoke and pulled the vehicle away from the building he’d stopped at before grabbing a fire extinguisher, Westhaver said. Fire crews took over when they arrived.

“Causation was speculated to be an aerosol ignited by a battery that had been discarded into plastic refuse,” Kowalewich said.

No injuries were reported and traffic resumed in the area shortly after the truck was cleared.

READ ALSO: Saanich recycled more than 200 kilograms of batteries between October, December


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devon.bidal@saanichnews.com