A refuse vehicle comprising a chassis, a body assembly coupled to the chassis, the body assembly defining a refuse compartment, and a thermal event monitoring system including an air sampling line configured to capture air from the refuse compartment of the refuse vehicle and transport the air to a sensor positioned outside of the refuse compartment and a processing circuit operatively coupled to the sensor and configured to detect a thermal event indicating at least one of a fire or an overheating component based on a signal from the sensor.