Once the three-day fire at Mangrove Landfill is fully extinguished, local fire officials will be knocking on the doors of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) with a number of recommendations aimed at minimising the risk of future blazes and improving the response if they do occur.
Among them is a suggestion from Chief Fire Officer Errol Maynard that the SSA establish formalised arrangements with private waste haulers to tackle future fires.
“Whenever we get a fire, private haulers including Jose Y Jose, SBRC [Sustainable Barbados Recycling Company] and other private waste haulers join together and assist.
“As far as I know, there is no formal arrangement written or signed. They do it out of the goodness of their hearts, I suppose. But when we sit and discuss with the policymakers, we will see if we can formalise an agreement. But until then, I wouldn’t want to say more about that,” he told Barbados TODAY.
Maynard made the disclosure as two fire tenders, six fire officers, a dozen private trucks and two from the SSA attempted to permanently extinguish pockets of burning tyres still sending fumes into the communities below.
On Monday, Environment Minister Trevor Prescod admitted that more fires should be expected as authorities pursue long-term solutions to the troubling issue as the landfill accepts 8,000 tyres each month.
But Maynard however suggested that much of the SSAs efforts should also be aimed at improving management of the site in the short-term
“I don’t know to what exactly the Minister was referring… what I can tell you is that yes, there is a possibility of fire of any such facility. Nevertheless, we have to make sure that there is constant management and proper vigilance on the site to ensure that even if a fire starts, it can be contained as quickly as possible.
“And we will have some recommendations to present to policymakers to advise them on what should happen at these facilities, but we would have to make those recommendations to the policymakers first before we make them public,” he added.
Late Wednesday afternoon, he reported that most of the hot spots at the Mangrove Pond landfill were covered, while others have been “contained, but not extinguished”.
On Tuesday, the fire, which started on Monday flared up at the Mangrove Pond dump when a bush fire started at the northern end of the landfill ended up on the southern side, igniting tyres, which had not been affected by the original blaze.
Fire fighters were also battling a lack of topsoil to cover the hotspots, broken down vehicles and uneven terrain. On Wednesday, those problems had reportedly been solved, but the Fire Chief was very reluctant to provide a definitive timeline because there were “too many surprises in this particular fire”.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
