Summit Co. tip: Don't warm the engine with lit charcoal

By Kieran Nicholson

Workers using an alternative heating method in abominably cold weather this morning sparked a fire at a mountain landfill.

The fire broke out about 9:40 a.m. at the Summit County landfill, just off of U.S. Highway 6 between Keystone and Dillon, said Steve Lipsher, a Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue spokesman.

Workers at the landfill put a pan with lit charcoal in it under a semi-tractor's oil pan, in an attempt to help heat the engine in minus 30 degree weather, and the tractor caught fire.

"This is one of those things that is directly related to the weather," Lipsher said. "They had a unique adaptation for handling it."

No one was injured in the fire.

Two engines and seven firefighters raced to the dump to douse the fire. The tractor and two trailers, which are used to move refuse around the landfill, were damaged.

"It was an accidental fire," Lipsher said. "They clearly didn't mean to torch the truck."

It took firefighters about an hour to put out the fire and mop up.