A garbage truck that caught fire in the South Okanagan Events Centre parking lot had to dump its load, Monday morning. 

The incident was first reported just after 11 a.m. 

Penticton fire crews responded to the scene to douse the smoking pile of garbage. 

Captain Ryan Bazley said the driver had noticed the smoke as he made is way from Summerland and pulled into the parking lot as a safe location. 

"There are no exposures around here," Bazley said. 

No injuries were reported in the incident. 

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, as the ignition source was buried deep in the load of garbage and the fire department had to wait for a backhoe to arrive to dig through it safely. 

"It's under control, we'll have the machine separate it for us so we can get to the hotspot, and then it's up to the disposal company to look after the rest of it," said Bazley. 

The garbage was loaded up by the city鈥檚 public works team into another truck the waste disposal company dispatched.