Friday morning at around 8:50 AM as the Independence Day weekend getaway was beginning, HFD was dispatched to Route 17 northbound, north of Racetrack Road on a reported truck fire.  First arriving PD units confirmed a near fully involved garbage truck on the shoulder of the highway.  The driver reported hearing a pop between the cab and the compactor of the truck, noticed flames and pulled to the shoulder and exited the vehicle but not before receiving burns to his hands and arms.

Patrols immediately closed the northbound lanes at West Saddle River Rd and as Asst. Chief Tucker Daly and Capt. Mark Zatorski arrived moments later, they instructed Engines 733 (OIC Ex-Chief Raimondi), 731 (OIC Ex-Chief Pattman) and 734 (OIC Lt. Iannelli) to proceed south in the northbound lanes to attack the intense blaze.  As crews were knocking down the fire with foam & tank water from the 3 engines, Chief Don Seltmann arrived, assumed command and requested an Engine from Waldwick to lay a 5" supply line to establish a water supply.  He also requested the Mahwah FD and Bergen County HazMat teams and that NORCON be activated and the firehouse be covered.

Waldwick Engine 632 arrived and laid approximately 1800 ft of 5" supply line from the hydrant at the Hollywood Ave entrance ramp to the scene to effect final extinguishment and overhaul of the fire.   Allendale FD Rescue was then requested for their cascade system to fill air bottles as was Ramsey Rescue should decontamination of the Haz Mat teams be required.

Although the fire was knocked down and extinguished within 30 minutes, the northbound lanes remained closed for over 3 hours as crews removed the garbage from the destroyed truck with front end loaders to place into a separate container truck, mitigated a hydraulic fluid spill on the roadway and then drained the remaining diesel fuel from the trucks saddle tanks.  One lane was eventually opened to traffic at approximately 12:30 and all lanes were then reopened after 3:00 PM.

A big thank you to all mutual aid departments who helped on scene including Waldwick FD, Mahwah FD Haz Mat, Allendale FD and Ramsey Rescue as well as departments providing coverage: Midland Park FD, Ridgewood FD and Washington Twp. FD.

Photo 1 courtesy of Jim Smith / The Record.

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