BELLEVUE, Wash. — Garbage was strewn across a Bellevue street after a truck caught fire and then dumped its load.
The driver of the recycling noticed smoke coming from the truck as he traveled down Somerset Boulevard in Bellevue.
When he realized the truck was on fire, he pulled onto a side street and dumped the load. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and started to spray his truck.
Neighbors called 911.
Don Chikuma took pictures. "This whole pile was on flames when I got here," said Chikuma."The whole top of it was flames coming up."
Bellevue firefighters put out the flames around 11:15 a.m.
[ >> PHOTOS: Garbage truck catches fire, dumps load in street ]
The burning garbage was spread out in the middle of the street. Firefighters say with the dry weather and wind the flames could have spread. "The definitely could have picked up and spread to the brush and worst case to the house," said Lt. Rob Dystra, of the Bellevue Fire Department.
Flames did burn a few bushes and tree branches.
The load was supposed to be recycling.
Fire fighters kept putting water on the pile of burned paper, melted bottles, and charred cans. Firefighters worked with crews from Republic to clean up the trash and shoveled it into another truck.
Workers said they found a discarded barbecue in the pile of recycling.
Bellevue Fire doesn't have an official cause of the fire.
The driver of the truck was not hurt, his truck was not damaged.