Private waste disposal companies in California are rethinking their fire emergency practices after a burning pile of trash turned into a vicious wildfire that ravaged a mobile home community, killing two people.
There are no California state laws that regulate how garbage men dispose of burning loads in their trucks, which leaves it to the independent waste disposal companies to decide the procedures employed for those occurrences, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
A fire on a garbage truck sparked the Sandalwood Fire to erupt in Calimesa, California, on Oct. 10, which killed two people. The driver, an employee of CR&R Environmental Services, reportedly dumped his truck’s load on the side of the road after detecting that there was a fire.
Executives in the industry are considering alternative methods to handle these dangerous situations amid a heightened threat of wildfires brought on by California’s arid and windy climate.
“We’re in the beginning of a conversation within the industry,” David Biderman, executive director of the 10,000-member Solid Waste Association of North America, said, according to the AP.