Elmhurst - May 20, 2009 - Garbage Truck fire on Rt. 83

Elmhurst Firefighters had their work cut out for them this afternoon when the contents of a loaded garbage truck started on fire. Every time they thought they were getting a handle on it and were able to get a back-hoe close enough to dump the contents, it started up again. The trucks hydraulics system apparently failed disabling it from just dumping the contents to let firefighters spread it out and extinguish it.

2 out of three lanes of southbound Rt. 83 were closed for several hours causing traffic back-ups in both directions.