Firefighters from Station 69 sprayed foam into a garbage truck that was on fire on Chautauqua. Photo: Rick Mills
Chautauqua Closed for Garbage Truck Fire
Chautauqua Boulevard between Pacific Coast Highway and Corona del Mar was closed for about an hour today, thanks to a garbage truck fire.
Circling the News received the following email from a reader “Anyone know about the spilling of a white milky substance that was running down to PCH from the last curve on Chautauqua? I got caught in it about 12:30 and had to do a U-turn because the road was blockaded by police. We all had to go back to the light and return to PCH and come back up on Temescal. I rolled up my window after realizing this could easily have been a toxic spill. I doubt it was an Altadena milk truck.”
The answer? Fire Station 69 received a call at 11:34 a.m. that a City garbage truck was on fire on Chautauqua, just off Corona del Mar.
Firemen sprayed more than 15,000 gallons of foam into the truck that picks up recycling. The fire was still not completely out, so firefighters had to escort the smoking truck back to the truck yard at Sawtelle and Bundy. There the trash was emptied from the truck and the fire completely extinguished.
A Department of Transportation officer told me that she had closed off northbound Chautauqua around noon. The road was reopened shortly after 1 p.m.
One of the officials onsite, who did not wish to be named, said that three times in the past several weeks, electric scooters have apparently helped cause trash fires. People pick them up and throw them in trash cans, where they are hoisted into garbage trucks with the rest of the trash, resulting in a fire. Circling the News was not able to confirm if Tuesday’s fire was the result of a scooter.
Foam, which was used by firefighters to put out a garbage truck fire, ran down Chautauqua.
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