— Photo courtesy city of Newport Beach
A garbage truck caught fire in Corona del Mar on Wednesday morning and city crews worked quickly to extinguish the flame and clean up the mess, authorities confirmed.
Newport Beach Police Department received a call about a vehicle fire in the 600 block of Carnation Ave. around 8:43 a.m., according to NBPD call logs.
Authorities arrived to find a CR&R truck’s engine engulfed in flames. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze using a special foam.
The foam is used depending on the circumstances of the fire, NBFD Battalion Chief Brian McDonough explained in an email on Wednesday.
“In this case it was used because of the combustible liquids involved — the diesel fuel from the truck,” he wrote. “The foam will provide a blanket over the fuel, reducing the chance for the vapors to ignite once the fuel is on the ground.”
The fire caused the fuel line to melt, allowing the liquid from the tank to leak out, McDonough added.
“Once the fire was controlled, keeping the fuel out of the bay became the top priority,” he said.
Public utilities department crews responded with sand to build dikes around the storm drains. They used a vacuum truck to suck up all the sand, water, and diesel fuel so that it could be disposed of properly and not let it leak into the bay. No fuel made it to the bay, McDonough confirmed.
“The Utilities Department was instrumental in making that happen,” he said.
The cause of the fire is unknown at this time. No injuries were reported.
