…and NEMO plans to out fire in four days

In a late evening press conference, NEMO Coordinator, George Lovell, briefed the media on their plan of action to get the fire at the dumpsite under control as quickly as possible. In fact Lovell went on record saying that they should have it extinguished in just four days.

Col. George Lovell, Coordinator, NEMO
“We will level the dump site and cap in those hot spots as part of the emergency efforts. We estimate that it will take us forty-eight hours in the first instance to at least bring the smoke to an eighty percent manageable solution and it will take us another forty-eight or so hours after that for us to have it down to a situation where we can say that the smoke has been completely dealt with. Thereafter, we will level the debris and we will have it capped with aggregates to a height of about one foot—only in the area that we currently identify as hotspots. We have a dredge that is providing water at the old dump site. That dredge is provided by CISCO Construction Limited. That dredge is putting some three thousand or so gallons of water per minute on the site. On the new dump site, we have the national Fire Service, which is working along with an excavator and a fire pump to extinguish that dump site and hopefully, by midnight tonight that particular dumpsite will be extinguished. The bulldozers are also working with the National Fire Service on the new dump site spreading aggregates on the hot spots as we speak.”

Philip Willoughby, Councillor Responsible for Garbage Collection
“There will be imposing of a new fee for the dumping of garbage at the dumpsite. Currently, the fees, I believe are inadequate and will not allow the council to operate, regulate, the human resources and equipment and other important components within the policy to regulate the dumpsite.”

There are plans to establish a controlled and well-managed dump site at mile twenty-four and replace the current sites with transfer stations.