The Nanoose Volunteer Fire Department were called Tuesday morning to douse a blaze after a load of trash inside a semi-trailer caught fire at the Parksville weigh station.
The trash came from the transfer station on Church Road and was being moved to the Cedar landfill in Nanaimo.
Smoke was seen coming out of the trailer and the smell of burning plastic filled the air.
An excavator was used to haul out the contents of the trailer, allowing firefighters to hose everything down.
Oceanside RCMP members were on hand to inform people of the danger of inhaling the smoke also to direct traffic.
NVFD chief Doug Penny said what caused the fire remains undetermined.
“It’s hard to say,” said Penny. “It could be a simple as a battery, it could be spontaneous combustion of some products, it could be electrical.”
READ MORE: Massive early-morning blaze destroys unoccupied Nanoose Bay home
Fire crews spent approximately 90 minutes dousing the trash and checking for hot spots. Penny said when dealing with garbage, it’s hard to gauge the danger.
“It could be anything,” Penny explained. “It’s household garbage. It’s whatever people throw in the garbage, whether it’s legal or not.”
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