Mangrove Pond on fire. Again

The country’s central landfill burned for a second straight day as firefighters and Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) workers struggled to keep a blaze under control into the late evening.

A fresh blaze flared up at the sprawling Mangrove Pond dump, thwarting efforts to extinguish the remnants of Monday’s fire which broke out in the northern section where tyres are stored.

SSA’s Assistant Manager Engineering Leona Deane told reporters an attempt was made to tamp down the thick black smoke to allow residents downwind to have a good night’s rest.

But a bush fire started at the north end and came around the southern direction and eventually started to burn tyres that were not burnt before, she said.

Deane said: “This is a separate incident. This has nothing to do with what happened overnight or yesterday.

“This morning early we had gotten it down to a certain level and everything was looking good, and we were just about to finish off by filling in those holes.

“And what happened was the fire escaped with some wind direction change and then the bush started to burn on the northern end coming all the way round.

“ the bush burned so quickly and it came right down and caught tyres that had not burned before.”

The engineer explained that when the blaze flared up this afternoon the intense heat prevented firefighters from approaching the area immediately.

Fire officials advise that the remaining tyres be allowed to burn, she said.

Deane said: “The men could not stay up there and continue to fight because the smoke was too thick and the heat was too intense.

“So we had to wait for it to burn off a bit and we will now be battling it again over night.

“Right now we are covering it with top soil to starve it of oxygen and ensuring that all of it is covered. So we will have no un-burned tyres now after this.”

Overseeing the firefighters at work was acting Chief Fire Officer Errol Maynard who told reporters he anticipated that keeping the fire under control was going to be a prolonged effort because of the large quantity of tyres in the area.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb