A CountyWide Carting dumpster went up in flames early Thursday morning at a customer’s property, just minutes before the scheduled pickup.
According to the company, the truck arrived at around 7:00 a.m. to find the dumpster fully engulfed. The Tallman fire department was called and quickly extinguished the blaze before it could spread further.
CCTV footage later revealed that at 6:54 a.m., a minivan pulled up and tossed an unknown item into the dumpster, believed to have been flammable or chemical material. Less than 5 minutes later, the CountyWide truck arrived to find the dumpster burning intensely.
CountyWide Carting CEO Moshe Jacobowitz told Monsey Scoop that the situation could have caused catastrophic damage.
“People need to be careful before disposing of these types of materials,” Jacobowitz said. “If our truck had arrived just three minutes earlier, which would have been only three minutes after the person threw the item in the entire truck could have gone up in flames. Thankfully, the driver arrived when he did, saw the fire, and immediately called the fire department. If the person who dropped the items in sees this article, please reach out to me, I just want to know what was put in there so we can educate the community on flammables. I won’t yell at you.”
Residents are urged to properly dispose of hazardous or flammable materials to prevent dangerous incidents that could endanger lives, property, and emergency responders.
