Fire causes damage at MCES shop
This front-loader garbage pickup truck was destroyed by a fire at the Environmental Services shop in Hartselle on Thursday. | Clif Knight
A front-loader garbage pickup truck was destroyed by a fire at the Morgan County Environmental Services facility in the Hartselle-Morgan County Industrial Park on Thursday afternoon.
Also lost in the blaze were 30 new truck tires. The outside parking deck in which the truck was parked and the tires stored received smoke and heat damage.
Other trucks were parked in the four-bay parking deck and the paint on one of them was damaged.
Hartselle Fire Department responded to the fire and was able to contain it within one bay of the parking deck.
Director Rickey Brooks said the fire apparently started between 5:30 and 6 p.m., after the shop closed for the day. He said he was notified about the fire at home by a sheriff’s deputy.
Brooks said the truck was a 2005 model and was in operation four or five days a week, serving commercial customers.
“We have a backup front loader, but it’s not able to carry the load of the truck that was destroyed,” he said. “I’m checking into the possibility of getting the commission to authorize an emergency purchase.”
The Environmental Service facility is practically new, having been built in 2010.
