Traffic was temporarily blocked on Hornet Drive after a garbage truck dumped its load in the middle of the street near University Transportation and Parking Services Wednesday around 11:40 a.m.

The driver dumped the garbage after noticing smoke and flames coming from the back of the truck.

It is Sacramento City Fire Department’s policy for garbage trucks containing burning material to dump it right away.

“They have to dump their loads or it will melt their hydraulics,” fire Capt. Jerry Boyd said.

Combustible materials occasionally get crushed and cause a fire when a truck is moving.

“It happens every now and then,” Boyd said.

No one was injured because there were no cars behind the truck when it released its load.

“The fire department got here pretty quick,” said Sacramento Police officer Nick Heuer. “The garbage truck tried to compress the garbage but didn’t want to lose the truck.”

The road was blocked for about three hours until the garbage was separated to check for smoldering materials and then placed into a loader.

Mitchell Wilson can be reached at [email protected].