CitCo still working on outing fire at city dump
They say where there is smoke there is fire, so the smoke emanating from the dumpsite off the Western Highway is a sure sign that the filth is ablaze. This problem is not new to south side Belize City but it is making many sick. Almost every year around this time residents and motorists travelling the area brace themselves for the stench of burning trash and the smoke that envelopes the highway. News Five went back to the dumpsite and found the Ministry of Works’ excavator at work. Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali
The section of the Western Highway between miles two and three looks as if though a blizzard is bearing down, creating a serious haze for motorists entering and exiting the city. But it’s far from a storm that’s taking place. The poor visibility in the area, as we have been reporting, is caused by the inferno that has been burning at the garbage dump off the highway. Today we found a team of fire fighters and City Council employees working feverishly to extinguish the blaze, which has been burning since before the Easter. Equipped with an excavator provided on Thursday by the Ministry of Works, City Councilor responsible for Sanitation, Philip Willoughby, says their plan is to suppress the blaze as best they could.
Philip Willoughby, City Councilor, Sanitation
“Our trucks are bringing material to assist of which the Minister and the CEO instructed to have material to help smother the fire and so forth.”
But smothering such a blaze is such a tedious challenge that Fire Chief John Briggs cannot predict when it will be over.
John Briggs, Fire Chief
“Because the fire is down in the dump, it’s anything up to ten feet deep, what we’re doing is we got the Ministry of Works to get an excavator digging a trench away from the fire. We’re putting water across onto the fire ground and knocking down what is burning on the surface. We can’t get sufficient water to go underground so we have to stop the fire and then go back in with the excavator and turn over what is burning underneath.”
Marion Ali
“That’s a very slow process. How long do you think it will be before it is extinguished?”
John Briggs
“I have no experience in this but it is going to take some time. It shouldn’t take weeks, no.”
Marion Ali
“So by next week this should be under control.”
John Briggs
“I would hope so.”
Briggs says that by Saturday they should have been able to extinguish the surface fire and should begin to work on the underground waste thereafter.
The fire creates much more than just an inconvenience to nearby residents. Over a long period of time it can pose serious health risks to them. And it is for these two reasons that Willoughby says there is a long-term plan that will seek to eliminate these problems.
Philip Willoughby
“There will be a transfer station at mile eight to mile twenty-four where the new landfill will be and so this will be a thing of the past. But there will be remedial measures if there are any flare-ups that the engineer along with the Solid Waste Management Authority that they have in place.”
The fire has left a staff stretched thin at the City Council’s Sanitation Unit to deal with their daily routines. But there has been help from one of their allies.
Philip Willoughby
“Waste Control has chipped in and said they will assist us to pick up the slack of which our dump trucks are assisting here within the city limits to pick up the hot spots and so forth. Waste Control has also committed to providing us free with some gas masks that I will hand over and keep in the care of NEMO. It won’t be perfect. It’s a transition type thing. They have their regular scope of works that they have to do and as soon as they are off that then they will assist.”
Currently John Briggs says, there are over two hundred square acres burning at the dump site. Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.
