Cooking Fat Truck Engulfed In Flames In Boulder

BOULDER, CO -- No one was injured when a cargo truck filled with cooking fat caught fire near a recycling facility in Boulder early Monday morning. Around 6:15 a.m., emergency dispatchers received a call that a truck was on fire next to ClearEcos in the 7200 block of Valtec Lane east of Boulder, the Boulder sheriff's office said.

When firefighters arrived, the 1995 International box-style cargo truck was engulfed in flames, a press release said.

Firefighters from Rocky Mountain Fire Authority and Louisville Fire Rescue got the fire under control before the neighboring building or the passenger compartment of the truck caught fire. The truck has been "deemed a loss" and the neighboring building "suffered minor damage," the sheriff's department said.

The sheriff's office supplied the following description of what happened:

The vehicle had been backed up to the building and contained used cooking oil, cardboard, and other similar items, and was unoccupied at the time of the fire. An employee of the business had noticed the smell of smoke coming from the truck and when he opened the back door of the truck to investigate, the fire quickly grew and engulfed the cargo area. The man who discovered the fire was not injured.

No criminal activity is suspected, the sheriff's office said.

ClearEcos had another fire March 29, when the insulation on the metal tanks containing used cooking oil caught fire. Firefighters were quickly able to extinguish the blaze.

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