An Auckland road has been left covered in rubbish after a recycling truck caught fire this afternoon. 

The Auckland Council recycling truck was forced to dump its load of rubbish after it caught fire in Mt Roskill. 

Richardson Road is blocked between Nirvana Way and Jana Place by emergency services 

Fire and Emergency spokesman John Carpenter said the driver saw smoke and fire at the back of the truck through a camera. 

“He’s had to pull over and dump the load. 

“If he hadn’t dumped the load, I would have got him to do that on arrival, it’s the safest way.” 

Fenz responded to the scene with two fire appliances. 

“We’ve extinguished the fire on the truck and now we extinguished the fire on the pile of rubbish, which is approximately, probably seven by six metres [wide] and probably 1.2 metres high.” 

Firefighters remain at the scene of a rubbish truck fire in Mount Roskill. Photo / Hayden Woodward. 

Auckland Council was sending a team to pick the rubbish up off the road, which had been scattered around by blustery winds. 

“We’ll hopefully get it cleaned up as soon as we can.” 

The fire is under control as of 2pm, but Fenz personnel and appliances remain on the scene. 

Police confirmed the incident and were assisting with road closures. 

The cause of the fire is not yet known. 

“This is a timely reminder to check what you put in the recycling bins because we don’t want a repeat of this and it happens too often,” Carpenter said. 

Firefighters remain at the scene of a rubbish truck fire in Mount Roskill. Photo / Hayden Woodward.