Local councils are urging residents to be careful what they dispose of – after a fire in a waste truck in Ferndale on Wednesday.

A crew from the City of Canning picked up a rolled up in a carpet off a verge, before throwing it in the truck – not realising there was a gas bottle hidden inside.

The truck caught fire – and the drivers narrowly avoided injury.

City of Canning Mayor Patrick Hall believes these kind of incidents happen frequently.

“We’ve had four fires in the last eight months in our trucks,” he told Perth LIVE’s Oliver Peterson.

“The crusher in the truck has crushed the tank and we’ve had an explosion. Thank goodness it wasn’t full of gas.”

Mayor Hall believes it’s not just gas tanks, but also lithium batteries.

“There’s a whole range of issues around hazardous waste that I don’t think people understand,” he said.

“It’s an Australia wide issue I think and people are doing it inadvertently but on this occasion, we feel it was done intentionally.”

Another incident occurred in Ocean Reef on Thursday morning in the back of a rubbish truck – expected to be caused by a gas bottle.

“We’ve got ways to dispose of hazardous waste, it’s all generally free, but you just have to get off your backside and do it,” Mr Hall said.

Press PLAY to hear the interview.