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Dust cart blaze drama in Leighton
Firefighters control the fire.
A bin man had to make an emergency stop in Friday Street, Leighton, on Wednesday morning when he noticed his dustcart was on fire.
The refuse-collecting lorry, owned by Shanks and McEwan, burst into flames in Waitrose car park just after 7am.
Firefighters from Leighton had to use cutting equipment to get into the back of the cart as electrics and hydraulics had failed, preventing any access to the fire inside. They acted quickly as flames had already started to penetrate the metal bodywork, melting the paintwork.
Two crews from Leighton tackled the blaze and successfully emptied the rubbish out on to the supermarket's car park so it could be extinguished properly.
Austin Leef, from Shanks, said that standard procedures were followed and added it was not uncommon to get fires in the carts. He said the load would be taken away for further investigation to try to ascertain what caused the blaze. The dustcart driver was unhurt in the incident.
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North
