A BIN lorry has caught fire, sparking a warning to residents.

A refuse crew from East Riding of Yorkshire Council was half-way through its blue bin collection round in Leven, near Beverley, this morning (June 29) when the load in the back of its truck began smoking.

The quick-thinking crew drove the vehicle to a safe place away from residents, the car park at Leven Sports Hall, and called firefighters in to deal with the fire.

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Although the cause isn’t known right now, a council spokesman said it is being blamed on batteries or a battery-powered vape coming into contact with the lorry or other waste, or - because of the hot weather - barbecue coals that were still smoldering, which had been placed in a blue bin.

Thankfully no one was injured. The lorry suffered slight damage as firefighters had to cut a hole in the side of the vehicle in order to reach the fire and extinguish it.

The fire destroyed all the recycling that had been collected on the round so far. A second bin lorry was called out to continue the rest of the collection round.

The incident has sparked another plea to residents from the council’s waste and recycling team never to place batteries, vapes or coals of any kind in their household bins in a bid to prevent further incidents.

Carl Skelton, the council’s acting director of streetscene services, said: “I want to thank this waste crew for their extremely quick actions which prevented a much bigger fire from happening.

“But our crews should never have to deal with a situation like this. This is what happens when batteries, vapes or coals get casually thrown into a household bin.

“Residents in the East Riding as normally fantastic at recycling, but I’d urge them to please take extra care with items of this nature and to make sure they recycle or dispose of them responsibly.”

The incident came soon after a fire was caused at a waste transfer station used by the council in Hull – again thought to be caused by batteries in waste coming into contact with machinery.

The council has previously issued a number of appeals to residents because of similar fires.

Batteries can be recycled by taking them to: Household waste recycling sites – All 10 sites in the East Riding have dedicated battery bins that can take all types.

Local shops and supermarkets that sell batteries will also have a battery recycling points or containers which residents can put their used ones into.

All batteries of any size can be recycled ... from small watch batteries to those used in remote controls, from mobile phone batteries to large torch batteries, even rechargeable batteries and power packs that have come to the end of their life.