BEATRICE – A piece of heavy equipment caught fire at the Beatrice Area Solid Waste Agency construction and demolition waste site, Thursday morning.

Beatrice Rural Firefighters were sent to area next to the new landfill at around 9:50 a.m. 

A Caterpillar 963-D loader being operated on a mound of waste caught fire.  There did not appear to be any injury to the operator and no ambulance was dispatched to the scene.

The C-and-D waste site is just west of the new BASWA landfill administration building and scale house and southeast of the first new landfill cell that will begin accepting solid waste.

Two fire trucks were sent and the flames were extinguished in about fifteen minutes.  It was not immediately clear what triggered the fire and a damage estimate is not yet available.

Machine being used at C-and-D site
Machine being used at C-and-D site