Flaming Vehicles
City Officials Silent Over Municipal Trucks Catching Fire

What happened to these city vehicles? Miami officials won’t say what’s going on here is these trucks are not being properly maintained because there’s a lack of personnel and too much equipment.”

By Omar Sommereyns

The initial incident occurred more than two years ago: A city of Miami-owned garbage truck caught fire on Oct 28, 2004. Then another truck burned up in December that same year. Then two more in June and July of 2005. And more ensued this year.

There have been at least seven cases related to vehicles catching fire or other serious problems within the city of Miami’s heavy fleet that the SunPost knows of (which doesn’t count incidents related to smaller vehicles).

The city had tried to keep a lid on the issue until, this past summer, the press broke the July 2005 story when a truck blaze caused some $13,000 in damages to Maria Teresa Nodarse’s Belle Meade home. To this day, incidents involving city vehicles continue, although, a source has told the SunPost, city administration and supervisors have been warning their employees not to release any information about the issue.

As for the cause of the fires, city mechanics’ work orders have often cited oil and hydraulic fluid leaks that weren’t immediately fixed. And just this past Dec. 4, another truck caught fire.

“What’s going on here is these trucks are not being properly maintained because there’s a lack of personnel and too much equipment,” said a source who asked to remain anonymous. “Some of the mechanics are leaving to the county and other places because there isn’t competitive-enough pay at the city. Also, workers have been retiring and haven’t been replaced. So sometimes [there are] trucks that are going out without getting the complete repairs they need.”

Back in April, the city filed a lawsuit against Lodal, Inc., a Michigan-based company that manufactures many of the garbage trucks the city owns, claiming that the vehicles are defective and that Lodal failed to fulfill its warranty by not replacing them.

According to the lawsuit, “The city has made written demand upon Lodal … that they replace the damaged vehicles, indemnify the city for all damages related to the fires, and take the necessary preventive and remedial actions to protect the remainder of the…vehicle fleet from damage due to fire. Said demands have been refused or ignored.”

Scott Van Wolvelaere, the plant manager at Lodal, told the SunPost that he couldn’t comment on the issue because of pending litigation. “We have a dispute with the city of Miami and it’s in my best interest to deal with the city directly and leave it at that,” he said. “They’re one of our customers, so I’d like to salvage my relationship with them.”

The city of North Miami Beach also uses Lodal trucks for garbage services, yet it hasn’t encountered the problems the city of Miami has.

“Like with any other heavy equipment vendor, we’ve had a few mechanical issues, but [Lodal] has addressed them and we’re actually purchasing two more of their trucks,” said Kelvin Baker, the city of North Miami Beach’s deputy city manager. “We are concerned about the fires that have happened out in Miami, and we’ve brought it up to Lodal and they’ve been responsive to us. But we’re just looking for good performance and we’ve been satisfied. My mechanics and drivers love the Lodal equipment.… We’ve had a fire issue, but nowhere near the stories I heard in the city of Miami.”

Additionally, on the city of North Miami Beach’s Web site, Baker touts the effectiveness of the new Lodal side loaders as well as the appealing value of the landscape design on the trucks. “Normally, garbage trucks are more of an eyesore than anything else,” he said.

The SunPost’s source insists that the city of Miami is neglecting its trash trucks and mechanics personnel to the detriment of sanitation workers’ safety, pointing out that employees working the light fleet (smaller vehicles) have been working overtime on the heavy fleet in order to make up for the dearth of mechanics.

Furthermore, it’s not only the Lodal trucks that are lacking proper maintenance. A Nov. 20 mechanic’s work order cites a Sterling garbage truck: “Road call to 27th Ave. NW 14th Street stated [that] the truck’s rear 2nd axle tire came off completely and damaged a private vehicle.” The document explains that all the lug nuts were either damaged or missing and that light fleet mechanics helped with repairs.

No one from the city of Miami would comment on the matter. The only response was an official e-mail sent by the City Attorney’s Office, which stated: “The anticipated areas of inquiry involve issues in the lawsuit, primarily maintenance. On the advice of counsel the city has no comment given the pending litigation.”

“There isn’t enough manpower and they’re risking people’s lives,” said the source. “The shop needs at least 15 more mechanics to do the right job. Now [the city] only [has] five on the day shifts and four at night. Several of the trucks are either burnt out or need more parts and are stuck in the shop, so there’s a smaller fleet out there providing services. Plus there are mechanics from the light fleet who have no experience working on the heavy equipment.

“The city has been threatening people not to talk about these issues to anyone. They just want to keep everything hush-hush because that’s the way the city works.”

Comments? E-mail omar@miamisunpost.com.