Supervisor: Fire destroys 6 Huntington Town garbage trucks

A fire Saturday night destroyed six Huntington Town garbage trucks at a maintenance yard, said Town Supervisor Ed Smyth, expressing confidence that household trash pickup this week will continue without interruption.

Yard waste collection, however, "will be suspended this week," Smyth said in a statement Sunday.

The blaze at the maintenance facility on Boxer Court just off Oakwood Road, was reported shortly after 11 p.m., fire and town officials said. Volunteers from the Huntington Manor Fire Department, with assistance from the Huntington Fire Department, were soon on the scene to extinguish the flames.

The Suffolk County Police arson squad is investigating the cause of the fire, but it does not appear to be suspicious, Smyth said.

"The Town is confident we can maintain regularly scheduled household garbage pick up routes," he said.

Explosions reported by residents in the area "came from the tires of the trucks as they burned,” Smyth said. “We are all grateful for the swift and effective action from all of the firefighters who responded.”

No injuries were reported and firefighters contained the blaze to six of the 15 trucks on site, said Huntington Manor First Assistant Chief Brian Christen.

“We were able to stop those six in time from extending to any further garbage trucks,” Christen said.

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.