The driver of a city-owned garbage truck escaped injury when the truck caught fire Monday on Winchester Road.

A police officer noticed smoke coming from the engine compartment and pulled the truck over about 1:30 p.m., Lexington Fire Department Capt. Todd Reece said. The truck's driver pulled into a shopping center near Winchester Road and Eastland Parkway.

The man had not noticed the smoke because the engine compartment on the city's garbage trucks are behind the cab where the driver sits, Reece said. About the time the driver pulled over and got out, "the fire burned through the hydraulic line, so the hydraulic fluid started burning," sending flames high into the air.

Firefighters extinguished the fire before it got into the trash compartment, which was full of refuse and could have made the fire harder to control, he said.

Josh Kegley: (859) 231-3197. Twitter: @HLpublicsafety.