MONTGOMERY COUNTY — Three Rumpke trucks have seen smoke or flames in the last month, and Rumpke says it’s coming from what residents are throwing in their trash.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00 p.m., residents throwing their batteries in the trash is causing big issues for Rumpke drivers, and they pop up in places you wouldn’t expect.
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Even throwing out your birthday card can be a problem.
“They saw smoke before they actually saw flames. So, which is a bit better,” Molly Kennedy, a Rumpke spokesperson, said when asked about the previous truck fires.
Two Rumpke drivers in the Miami Valley saw smoke caused by lithium batteries in the back of their trucks.
In these two instances, drivers caught it when it was just smoke, but that wasn’t the case last week when one truck backed over and crushed a battery.
“It created a spark, and it was underneath recyclable material,” Kennedy said.
A video of that fire was shared on Montgomery County’s Facebook.
Kennedy told News Center 7’s Mason Fletcher that Rumpke has fire extinguishers all around their loading area and drivers were able to get the flames out.
But a small fire can turn into something much bigger very quickly.
“Our facility doesn’t have detectors that can see, you know, infrared light, it can’t catch that fire. So we’re relying on our employees,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said that drivers have a camera feed in the front of the truck that shows the trash going into the back, and it’s up to the driver to find any material that shouldn’t be there.
News Center 7 previously reported on when Centerville started using AI Technology to sort through the trash in the truck.
But Kennedy said Rumpke will stick to trusting their drivers.
“We’ve talked about it internally, just had the discussion of, oh, what’s it like? What’s going on? Is it something that we could maybe look at? Not to my knowledge,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy also said that residents should turn their batteries into their solid waste district, or drop them off at an electronics store like Staples or Best Buy.
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