In one incident, which took place on West Princes Street in the west end of the city on September 14, a driver was forced to dump a load of rubbish in the middle of the road.<\/p>\n
A second blaze then broke out in the back of one of the new waste collection vehicles near Hillhead Secondary School on September 15. The driver was forced to race out to get a fire extinguisher from the school janito<\/a>r while they waited for the fire service.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a third incident was reported on Chamberlain Road on September 7 – and Chris Mitchell, convener at the GMB union<\/a>, said vape and lithium batteries are likely the cause.<\/p>\n Speaking to the Record, Chris said: “There is a potential catastrophe for anything to happen if this isn’t dealt with. One incident happened near a school and the other two we managed to dump on the street.<\/p>\n “We are working on tight streets with cars all around us. If a bin lorry goes up and catches fire, it’s a recipe for severe disaster.”<\/p>\n All three fires happened in the back of new vehicles which were introduced four months ago to replace the 16-year-old fleet.<\/p>\n Chris continued: “It’s vapes and batteries that are the issue, anything with lithium in them. People aren’t disposing of them properly.<\/p>\n “We have just managed to secure the funding for the 22 new lorries at \u00a3200,000 each and the compartment at the back, because it is new, it crushes everything. We believe that it is crushing these batteries and they are igniting. When you see three fires in the space of two weeks there is a serious problem here.”<\/p>\n Chris said that he believes it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt<\/a>.<\/p>\n He is calling on authorities to launch a campaign to raise awareness on how to dispose of batteries and he is set to write a letter to both the Scottish Government<\/a> and the UK Government outlining his concerns.<\/p>\n “They need to look at how we dispose of things”, said Chris. “We’ve had lorries off the road for days because of fires and this has an impact on how we cover refuge collections across the city, which is already under pressure.<\/p>\n “Because there’s been three fires in two weeks, everyone is very sceptical now. We have major concerns.<\/p>\n “Someone is going to get hurt if nothing is done about this. The safety of the workers is the most important thing.”<\/p>\n![\"Exploding](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_JS382075543.jpg\")
Exploding ‘vape batteries’ have sparked fires in three bin lorries in the last two weeks(Image: Chris Mitchell )<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_JS382076198.jpg\")
The new bin lorry vehicles were introduced four months ago to replace the 16-year-old fleet(Image: Chris Mitchell )<\/p>\n
![\"Fire](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1_JS382075538.jpg\")
Fire crews were called to extinguish the blaze on West Princes Street(Image: Chris Mitchell )<\/p>\n