Uptick in garbage fires, likely caused by Lithium Ion batteries

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Thing we've been seeing a lot of lately fires in garbage trucks and other heaps of trash. Now this one happened in Troy just last week trash catching fire in the back of a garbage truck the driver dumping the load onto the street to stop it from fully engulfing the rest of the truck.

[00:00:21]And then in California this one caught on video. Take a look at this fire erupting in the back of a garbage truck in both cases and many others the cause was the same lithium ion batteries.

[00:00:31]There's a right way and a wrong way to dispose of them. Fox's Briana Arredondo explains.

[00:00:38]>> Cell phones, power tools, smart watches, they power our lives but they're also a potential fire hazard.

[00:00:45]>> This is actually from like a camera and you can see it's a individually zip locked.

[00:00:49]>> Daniel Gallagher with Hillsborough County Solid Waste tells me lithium ion batteries are the number one cause of fires in his industry. The danger happens when people toss them in the trash.

[00:00:59]>> Could you imagine being a driver and seeing smoke come out the back of the truck? How dramatic and scary? Your training's got to kick in. You got to find a right place to drop off the load cuz you have to eject the load otherwise the life of the driver and the truck is going to be totally destroyed.

[00:01:11]>> The county counted 30 truck fires in the past few years. 13 last year and five so far this year.

[00:01:17]>> We've actually been launching a education campaign to help educate residents on how to properly dispose of batteries and the message has really worked.

[00:01:24]>> So before you drop them off at a disposal site tape the ends.

[00:01:27]>> That's way the terminals aren't going to come to contact with anything. So now you can safely transport it, bring it to a store or one of our drop off locations.

[00:01:34]>> Hillsborough County also accepts entire electronics but no electric vehicle batteries. And if the battery does not come off >> We advise you do not dismantle or take apart the battery. If you cannot easily remove it that that is paramount.

[00:01:46]>> These fires can also hit home.

[00:01:49]>> 305 >> Dunedin Fire Rescue responded to a mobile home fire Tuesday after several e-bikes and scooters caught fire in a carport.

[00:01:57]>> So, like e-scooters, uh families keep them charging them inside their house.

[00:02:01]And again, they can uh if you leave them on the charger too long, the battery can swell. If it's next to something flammable, that's how you get these fires.

[00:02:08]>> And if you're unsure where to drop yours off, check out your local county's website. Reporting in Hillsborough County, Briana Arredondo, Fox News.