Charleston Fire & Rescue release - A Les' Sanitary truck flagged a Charleston Fire crew down because his load was on fire on the truck. The crew happened to be in station completing weekly truck checks at Charleston Station 3 in the Boat Basin. The crew leader immediately instructed the driver to dump his load on Charleston Rd so crews can work the fire and locate the source of the fire and the cause. The fire was quickly extinguished and the cause was evident. A large pack of lithium batteries had been improperly disposed of. They had ignited after they were loaded into the garbage truck. The quick response and decision to dump the load not only makes it easier to locate and extinguish the fire. This also saves the truck. Today's garbage trucks cost over $500,000. Les' Sanitary is working on the clean-up currently. Please stay out of the area until they are done.  The proper way to discard lithium batteries at this time is to take them to the County Solid waste dump at Beaver Hill.