BT quarry fire posed no smoke danger, claims CIFS
Fire at an illegal garbage dump in Bodden Town (Photo by GIS)
(CNS): In the face of remaining concerns that the recent fire that smouldered for several weeks at a quarry in the Bodden Town area, the Cayman Islands Fire Service is standing by its initial assessment. In a statement Thursday, CIFS officials said that there was never a risk of the fire spreading, and even at its most active, there was no dangerous smoke fumes reaching residential areas, the nearest of which were some 1,450 feet away. The Department of Environmental Health, which measures indoor air quality, has offered their services to at least one resident who has complained about the fire.
The fire service said that the smouldering piles of vegetation mixed with quarry material did not threaten property in the Lake Destiny Drive residential community. However, the substantial size of the piles as well as the content, which included aerosol containers, posed significant risk to both officers and plant operators, who would have had to pull the piles apart to extinguish them. Fire crews therefore opted to monitor these fires rather than attempt to put them out.
Fire officers raised concerns that while the fire was burning, some people continued to use the site as an illegal dumping ground, in violation of the law and creating a hazard for the nearby communities as well as the firefighters.
Officers monitoring the fire spoke to the quarry owners about their storage practices. Once it was safe, the owners were required to dismantle the substantial piles of rubbish that prevented officers from safely and immediately extinguishing the fire. An abatement notice was also served to ensure the owners dealt with the fire and future risks.
The fire was finally extinguished last week, but because the public has remained concerned, the fire service issued another review of the decisions they made and the state of the fire.
“On 25 September when the fire was first reported and at its most intense, fire officers found no sign of smoke during extensive checks of the nearest residential area, 1,450 feet away,” CIFS explained in the statement.
“In addition, the vast amounts of water necessary to extinguish the fire would have resulted in contaminated water entering nearby ponds. For all these reasons the fire service opted to manage the incident by focusing on monitoring the site of the fire, working with site owner to ensure that the fire could be extinguished once it was safer to do so, and that it met fire safety standards thereafter, as well as making regular visits to the Lake Destiny neighbourhood to assess the impact of any smoke.”
Over the weeks that the fires continued to smoulder fire officers checked the site regularly and the surrounding areas downwind of the fires, CIFS said.
“While the fire service does not have the capacity or remit to measure air quality, at no time during their visits to the neighbourhood did officers see any visible sign or smell any odour of smoke,” the officials said, noting that the DEH had made contact with concerned residents.
During the life of the fire it emitted pale-coloured smoke, fire experts said, “consistent with burning undergrowth, brush and tree stumps”. As it died down to a smouldering state, the smoke continued to diminish each day until all the burning spots were extinguished.
“At no time was black smoke observed from the fire, which would have implied the presence of a carbon-based fuel source, such as tyres or gasoline,” CIFS stated.
See photos of the Bodden Town quarry fire below, supplied by GIS (click to enlarge).
Category: Crime, Fire Service
Cayman does not need to ever worry about the smell of garbage or smoke. All of our pollutants are blown off by the winds into the ocean. So go make more garbage and all the fire you want.
Let me put things in prospective and shade some clarity.
The Fire Department is going through a transition with leadership and senior positions. During this process a few red flags have been obvious internally and externally of the department.
The response and execution by the Fire Department at the Bodden Town quarry fire is not a reflection of the Fire Department on a whole. There are qualified and trained certified senior officers at the department, the problem is that contrary to their knowledge, experience and skills to perform, management seem to have turn a blind eye and deaf ears to some of these senior officers during the selection process of the said positions. Maybe that is because of the department’s lenient approach towards the selection. For example, no proper criteria is in place for senior acting positions: no examinations, qualifications or interview required- just randomly/politically selected it seems. Until the Fire Department management can up with a robust and fair selection process of the leadership and senior positions, we will continue to see errors which unfortunately does not give justice to our well trained and qualified senior officers that are ready and willing to make a difference at the department.
Any one knows a good lawyer that would be willing to take this on on behalf of the people?
Good time to start a class action lawsuit . I believe one of the Lawyers would be happy to pick it up .
Against the quarry owner? DOE? Fire department? CIG?
Damages? Human rights violations? Clean Air Act violation?
I hope someone from the fire service reads my post:
This article states that due to danger to the fire officers dealing with the fire it was opted to monitor instead of tackling the flame. This is poor risk assessment. They rather leave possibly toxic combustion to travel in the path of residential areas than equip themselves with self contained breathing apparatus and treat the fire whether with water or foam.
If they were concerned with toxic run off from the water they could have built a containment berm properly lined and diverted the water into it then pumped the water out and transport it to the dump. So many ways to skin a cat and they chose poorest route.
Who does this? This sounds like a story from India or the Congo! Not so called paradise. Shameful.
Quarry fire and incinerators.
And someone gets paid regularly to protect your health.
“While the DEH has provisions in place to monitor the construction and operation of incinerators, the official explained that the regulations do not include the “guidelines indicating what pollutants one should test for”. In addition, the DEH does not have the “necessary equipment to allow for adequate monitoring of such emissions at this time”.
As for when the DEH will be able to test for these emissions, “It is hoped that (the department) will be able to do so in the foreseeable future.”
CNS, September 2018
DEH will never have such monitoring equipment let alone know how to use it effectively. God forbid they might have to use it one day on their own dump and have data that might be used against them. The stick your head in the sand approach works for DEH and another public authority, whom I shall leave for another post. Besides, according to DEH if you don’t check to see if you have a problem, there isn’t one is there?
“TheGeorge Town and Cayman Brac landfill incinerators have burned nearly 2 million pounds of trash since August 2016, all without the use of scrubbers – devices to remove toxins from the incinerators’ exhaust.” Compass, October 2018.
Why do people still live in “Paradise”? Enlighten me please.
Toxic ash http://ukwin.org.uk/resources/health/toxic-ash/
According to the European Environment Agency “the disposal of filter dust/ fly ash
from waste incineration plants is a serious problem”. Filter ash contains very high concentrations of heavy metals and chlorinated organic compounds, which can cause cancer and other health problems.
There are NO filters whatsoever in GC and Brac incinerators!!!!!
Yet, residents remain blind, deaf and dumb. Just cover your eyes and ears and the problem ceases to exists.
Unfathomable¡!!!!!!!!!!¡!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just wait till the wholesale burning of trash happens at the new GTLF WTE plant. Who will be monitoring this one 24/7/365? The GT core is the predominant fallout zone, same as in an air quality study done for our electric utility. I could go into detail about Ivan debris burn sites but that just might plain scare people for hallowe’en.
That it took several weeks to extinguish a small quarry fire, tells you everything you need to know about CIFS capability and headspace. Who was the commanding officer of this fiasco? How much did it cost us? Did we have to keep paying while the quarry owner instructed them to let it burn?!?
It’s scary to think that those charged with the duty of looking after the good people, seemingly have less common sense and basic education than those good people they are employed to protect. And of course my comment goes waaaaay beyond this particular incident.
Frankly, nobody cares, based on the number of comments. But they are fools. Every resident in Grand Cayman is drowning in sublethal dosages of extremely toxic substances. Your leaders as well. You can’t run or hide from it. No matter how robust your body’s detoxification system is, eventually it fails. I can only imagine what it does to your babies and children. Conceving a child in Grand Cayman should be prohibited.
I feel sorry for the residents. They are treated, just like the garbage men, as easily disposable. Human life and health means nothing in your country.
Poisons from the Dump, Incinerators, fires…
What they really mean is, ‘If we couldn’t see it it wasn’t there,’ and when it comes to anything fire-related that is just plain dumb.
Check out – http://theconversation.com/wildfire-smoke-and-health-5-questions-answered-85717
Thank you!
DEH offered service for air quality test to resident? This is the facts: a request was made to DEH on Oct 4th, DEH said they will only approve test base on doctor report. I told I did not have money to go to doctor at that time. unfortunately when I no longer could handle the illness from smoke inhalation I was forced to seek medical attention. Dr. confirmed my symptoms to be smoke related and ordered the air quality test when seen on Oct 17th. Few days later received contact from DEH. Set a time and date but did not work out as DEH did not get text message (sorry I can’t blame them as no one every sends text message anymore) but thereafter I had no credit to call either. But I still require the test to be done as I am still on my medication.
I want people to know that we did not ave any desire to complain against the quarry owner or to cry out in the manner we did but, we were forced to, as when we appealed to them for weeks on, they did not help us. We suffered greatly due to the smoke and we have no reason to to not tell the truth about what happened. Is it because we live in Govt. Assistance Housing why we didn’t matter, I don’t know for sure but, they never did anything to help us and it was only us who paid and are still paying the unfortunate price.
I don’t doubt the truth you are saying at all .We live in Northward and with the prevailing Easterly wind while not really visible we could clearly smell smoke for a good couple of weeks when we sat in our yards after work, and weekends. We were driven indoors twice the week it started and again the following week because we could feel burning sensation in our noses and throats from smoke/fume inhalation.
This statement clearly shows how uninformed and ignorant the fire service and relevant Ministry is. They clearly don’t even know the basics of smoke inhalation in situations like this. It saddens me when so many people upwind of the fire suffered along with you, and yet nobody will offer any support or accountability.
Accountability? What’s that?
Wise, people, please refer to the Compass Paper dated Sep 26th, where this story was first mentioned and you’ll find the following comments which contradict the above mentioned statement from officials.
“Large piles of vegetation that went up in flames in Bodden Town could burn for days, fire officials said on Tuesday.
The blaze, which started around noon Tuesday, blanketed several homes with plumes of smoke in the neighborhoods around Pease Bay, including government affordable homes on Sitwell Road, near Belford Drive.
The plumes covered the afternoon sun like a blanket of dark clouds and showered the area with black soot, forcing residents to close their windows and door.
At one point, the heavy plumes of smoke could be seen on the George Town skyline by residents and workers.
“It was a lot of smoke around my house. It had me frightened as if my house was on fire,” said Meredith Clarke, a resident of Sitwell Road, who arrived home around 5 p.m. Tuesday to see the smoke. “The black smoke went high up in the air. All last night and early Wednesday morning, before I left work, the smoke was still there,” she said.
The fire is burning in a spot of around 30,000 square feet in the Pease Bay Bodden Town Quarry, which belongs to quarry developer Justin Wood.
“Once it’s not endangering anything, it can burn.… Smoke will be the biggest problem for residents but [there’s] really nothing we can do about it,” added Mr. Charlton.”
Wow!
CIFS & DEH, you failed us! Stop making the poor innocent people out of liars when it was you would failed din your jobs!
If fire pose no threat to people, why was an abatement notice served telling them to immediately put it out? and why wasn’t the abatement notice enforced when not complied with? Why did people get sick? why did more than two people get lung infection and a child suffered with eye infection. Really and truly your are making a bias comment.
Vegetation? Why did we see tires/5 gallong plastic containers/ propane tanks as well as other harmful waste? Unnah bunch of good for nothing chickens!
There’s fridges, gas cans and aerosols, tyres, batteries, paint cans, furniture, plastics and all manner of waste dumped there. I lived nearby for several years until I moved closer to town in 2013 and it was the same back then.
“BT quarry fire posed no smoke danger, claims CIFS”
A quick Google search has confirmed that is in fact a lie.
https://www.webmd.com/lung/smoke_inhalation_treatment_firstaid.htm#1
Thats smart owner of land/quarry must of been paid to accept household garbage ….. Cheaper than going to the landfill all the way in George Town
Wow. Cayman is turning into one big garbage dump.
Maybe this is Cayman new incineration system . But how do the CIFS know that a fire burning for weeks isn’t going to cause harm to people , and how do they know that it won’t cause other damages? Does the CIFA Officials know how far out and down the temperature of this fire is gone ? And what is that temperature ?
Bullshit.
They admit they have no idea and it’s not in their job description to know…expressed another way, “our three years of high school gave us zero ability or knowledge to discern toxic fire smoke from any other, apart from smell and – besides it’s out now, so just say it was all fine”.