Philoughby ready to out fires at the city dump

While we look forward to every year for the Cross Country Cycling Classic, there is one event that many residents of the old capital dread, and that is the annual fire at the city’s dumpsite on the Western Highway. The smoldering stench and smoke tend to hover over large portions of the city and has affected the health of many asthmatics.  Last year Cisco Construction and the National Emergency Management Organization had to step in and assist when the effects of the inferno were threatening the health of the entire city.  Councillor responsible for garbage, Philip Willoughby stood tall at the dump when the fire broke last year, and Willoughby now says that he hopes some planning will prevent this year’s annual fire.

Philip Willoughby, Deputy Mayor

“If you check history the past continues to repeat itself as the dumpsite annually burns. So hopefully we put the measures in place so that we mitigate better any or prevent any outbreaks of fire at the dumpsite. Umm, the technical issue of the fire will be deliberated upon by mister Ted Smith and the technical aspect will be dealt with by Misses Ramy Chia from Solid Waste Management Authority as an engineer to guide the city council on how we would proceed in putting some in additional infrastructure preliminary to what the Solid Waste Management Authority will be doing.”

Ramy Chia, Technical Environmental Specialist-Solid Waste Management Authority

“We will put in place preventive measures or controlling measures in the event that there is a fire. There is a smaller area that it can be contained within. And it can be controlled easier by the fire department. What we’re planning to do is to separate off the areas in the new part of the dumpsite and we’re going to be doing that by creating some bums that should be first excavating in the garbage trench, then we’ll be putting in some clay materials so that we can create a bum that would separate the area into two areas. So in the event of a fire it can be controlled easier. And then the fire won’t be crossing over to the other side because you’ll have the bum separating them. But while they’re doing that they will relocate the dumping area. Instead of dumping where it is presently occurring, it will now occur in an area in the old section of the dumpsite so they can continue works in the existing sections.”

Ted Smith, Deputy Fire Chief

“In our effort to mitigate fires, we identified certain risk factors such as ignition sources, and we will try to eliminate those. Reduce the likelihood of a fire by reducing the ignition source. We also put in place measures to compliment the fire fighting team as the deputy mayor rightly mentioned. We will be conducting some training at the Fire Service for members of the city council so that they can

compliment national fire service in case of an incident.”