Update: Fire at Mangrove Landfill

Thick, black smoke continues to billow from burning tyres at the Mangrove landfill in St Thomas but the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) has given an assurance that residents downwind of the hill top dump are in no immediate danger.

In a brief update, SSA spokesman Carl Padmore said an SSA team is still trying to clear a path to the heart of the fire, which reportedly started just after 6.00 a.m.

He said: “We believe that by evening that we should have it under control.”

Padmore said that the smoke was a result of burning tyres and that there was no need to panic. But he added that a team of firefighters from the Fire Service was on standby.

Waste haulers were also transporting topsoil to the landfill in a bid to contain the fire, Padmore said