A mechanical issue is believed to have set a dump truck ablaze Thursday morning on a rural road south of Ridgefield.
Clark County Fire & Rescue firefighters were dispatched to the 4500 block of Northwest 199th Street about 9:47 a.m.
A single fire engine from CCFR and another from Fire District 6 headed down the street toward the reported address and spotted the truck engulfed in flames, said CCFR spokesman Tim Dawdy.
The driver had dumped a load of gravel nearby and was headed east on 199th to his next job when the truck stopped running, Dawdy said. He got out of the truck, opened its hood and discovered the engine was on fire.
Grabbing a fire extinguisher from inside the truck’s cab, the driver tried to put out the fire himself but was unsuccessful.
The extinguisher on hand “doesn’t provide much of an edge against a fast-growing fire,” Dawdy said. The blaze spread to the rest of the truck, and the man called 911.
The driver reportedly suffered minor injuries; he declined a trip to the hospital. Dawdy advised people to call for professional help rather than taking matters into their own hands.
It took firefighters about 15 minutes to extinguish the fire. The dump truck was a total loss.
The fire happened directly under a power line, and emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian indicated shooting flames may have been reaching up to and damaging the wire.
Clark Public Utilities sent out a serviceman to check the phone line, spokeswoman Erica Erland said in an email.
There was no damage to the utility equipment, she said.
