Garbage inside of a dump truck owned by waste management company Republic Services caught fire in a parking lot next to the office building along Streets Run Road at around 11:20 a.m. on Monday.
The office building sits on the edge of and boroughs next to and behind the .
Crews from the and the responded to the scene shortly after the fire was reported and drove away at around 12:03 p.m.
Whitehall firefighters doused the dump truck and its garbage load with water, and the three Republic Services employees who were with the truck left the garbage in the parking lot to be cleaned up later.
The soaking pile of trash is still in the lot as of 12:50 p.m.
Witnesses inside of the office building could not see flames shooting from the truck but could see dark, heavy smoke coming from it.
The smell of burning garbage alerted many of those witnesses to the fire.
Republic Services employees would not answer questions regarding the incident, but a Whitehall police representative said that the fire was merely accidental.
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Once again, my lack of direction has caused me to shame myself.