Fire Captain Derrell Sharp, right, provides directions to firefighter Forest Hietpas and Lieutenant Chad Cate before extinguishing a shredded paper fire March 6. Photo by Patrick Young

Firefighters with Fire District 3 climbed up a small mountain of shredded paper to extinguish a fire earlier today.

Public Information Officer Patrick Young said the driver of a commercial paper shredding truck stopped at District 3 headquarters on North Fifth Avenue to report the truck was on fire.

“The crew found that the truck, owned by Recall Americas, had about 6,000 pounds of paper loaded in the truck and that it had a smoldering fire,” Young said in a news release.

After applying a small amount of water, fire crews decided to move the truck to the district’s Carlsborg training center to empty the paper out of the truck and extinguish the fire there, Young said.

The paper was emptied and a crew of six firefighters climbed the pile of paper and quickly extinguished the fire. There was no damage to the truck and no injuries were reported.

Young said the most likely cause of the fire was something metal sending sparks into the paper while it was being shredded.

The shredded paper, none of which had identifiable information, was left at the training grounds and will be used to mix in with composting materials, Young said.