Dump fire could happen again
(CNS): As the Cayman Islands Fire Service (CIFS) and the Department of Environmental Health continue to battle the current blaze at the George Town dump for the fourth day, there appears to be little more that can be done in addition to current measures to guarantee that there will be no fires like it in the future until the remediation process, which has not yet begun, is complete. CIFS and DEH staff are still excavating, damping down and capping the areas affected in order to reduce smoke and extinguish the persistent fire, according to the latest official update.
At a press briefing at the dump Monday afternoon, Chief Fire Office Paul Walker said that since the last fire major fire at the landfill, DEH equipment operators who are doing the compacting and the dumping of the waste have been “particularly vigilant” in keeping an eye out for smoke, and if they see a small sign of fire, “we’ve asked them to mobilise us early because sometimes that early mobilisation is key not to have the fire escalate”.
When the DEH workers see any signs of smoke, they call the fire service, “and then we have a joint operation of excavation and damping”, Walker said.
The Cayman Islands Fire Service is also getting thermal imagery taken from drones once per week, which gives them “an indication of where there might be hot spots so that we can come up and do some preventative work through damping down”, Walker said.
Noting that the landfill is a large site and “always a challenge”, he said there are “deep seated fires and pockets of fires that do materialise through the surface”. Once this happens and if there are the kinds of winds that Cayman has been experiencing over recent days, there will be a rapid fire spread.
Responding to a CNS question, Walker said there would be no huge gains by taking thermal imagery every day, and that the current reliance on DEH workers keeping an eye out for smoke “appears to work”. Asked to explain what this meant, he said, “We’ve been here probably four times in the last three weeks when they’ve seen signs of smoke, and then we’ve excavated and we’ve extinguished, and we haven’t seen the scale of fire that we’ve seen on this occasion.”
DEH Director Richard Simms said that the current blaze started as a deep seated fire that eventually worked itself to the surface. As soon as heavy winds got to it, it started to spread and became difficult to manage.
Explaining how a deep seated fire starts, he said, “The landfill has methane gas built up in it …and things are moving constantly in there. All you need is a little pocket and a little friction, combustion, and the fire starts. The landfill could be on fire for weeks and we don’t even know until it finds its way to the top. When there’s a surface fire, we discover that there something going on there and we start to attack it from all fronts: by smothering it and water through the assistance of fire department.”
The previous major fire was not in the landfill but in the metal pile, so it was a different type of blaze. That fire, Simms explained, had been ignited when the excavators were moving a vehicle. “It created a little spark and the metal pile caught fire.”
Asked what they can do to prevent another landfill fire, Simms admitted there is no way of guaranteeing that another fire cannot happen, they can only continue to do what they have been doing, which is “to compact it, put fill on top and compact it some more. Those things are preventative measures. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a cure all because even the most well compacted landfill can still catch fire, because it’s constantly moving and all it takes is for air-pockets to open up.”
However, Premier Alden McLaughlin said that the remediation process, which is supposed to start soon and be complete in about six months, will prevent landfill fires from starting. (See full story here.)
Simms said normal garbage collection will continue and that he will make sure that residential and commercial collections are on time and on target. However, given the current fire, they are not dumping on the landfill itself but have created a new “haunch”, which was opened up Monday morning, and this is where they are now taking all the waste.
Asked about air quality in area, Simms said this is not in place but was something they were looking into for the near future.
At the press briefing, Detective Superintendent Pete Lansdown said that the RCIPS had been notified about the fire at about 4pm Sunday afternoon. “The officers who attended Esterley Tibbetts Highway made a very quick assessment and established that it was very dangerous for any vehicles to go north or south on the carriageway and closed both roadways.”
Soon afterwards they established that sparks and embers could potentially have crossed the road and could have caused a major hazard to the residents at Lakeside Apartments.
The smoke was thick and black could have caused respiratory problems to residents so he made the decision to evacuate the condos, which affected 400-500 people, Lansdown said, noting that only seven people went to the Red Cross shelter. At around 9.30pm, the wind shifted and smoke began to settle in Watler’s Road, so they decided to evacuate that area as well.
After the next operational strategy meeting on site at 4pm today, Tuesday, a decision will be made as to whether the smoke has subsided enough to safely allow Lakeside Apartments and Watler Road residents to return home Tuesday evening, officials said.
In the latest update on the current fire, officials said that, as anticipated, through the process of excavating, controlled flare ups have occurred, which have been extinguished quickly by fire crews.
Commenting on the volume of food donations and well-wishes offered to fire crews, CFO Walker said, “Everyone at CIFS is overwhelmed by the level of public support and generosity shown to our crews. During protracted and challenging incidents such as this, it really means a lot that the community is behind us. This is CaymanKind at its best.”
Anyone experiencing any problems with irritation or difficulty breathing should contact their healthcare professional or seek help from the Accident and Emergency Department at the Health Services Authority (HSA).
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That word ‘could’ is a bit vague,
In this article it actually means ‘definitely will”
But if you said ‘the Cayman Government could get something right’ it actually means ‘absolutely no chance whatsoever this side of Armageddon’
Last night 10-Mar-20 the dome (I mean dump) was glowing like a volcano and spewing ash (well smoke).
The fire in the dump is DEEP. Has anyone produced charcoal and understands the principle of pouring soil on “fuel wood” with grass and air vents getting to the burning wood? Pray the winds stay down. There is also need for rain to bring down the smoke/smog over Lakeside, Watler Rd and surrounding areas. (Can’t even say wind).
The Govt played politics with the dump in 2013 and now it has BACKFIRED and burning out of control. I tell you the wrong men do will turn back to them. Now it will cost the taxpayers and Dart (he has prob already lit a fire under Govt), triple $$$ to get the dump fixed.
Now is the time for Govt and people to prepare for a potential COVID-19 problems and then so much resources have to be directed to a “Dump” that should have been fixed.
If they cannot pit out a dump fire, how will they contain the virus? Guess what? Just like after Ivan, all the top job mercenaries will run and leave Cayman. We who stayed fought and stabilized the country WEREN’T nationally recognized.
No doubt the new Fire Chief must be fuming about coming to Cayman to put out “Dump fire”. 2021 Heroes Day needs to be dedicated to those who toiled during and post Ivan/Paloma and other emergency workers. May GOD have mercy on these islands.
There is a very interesting picture in today’s Compass with people packaging meals in Styrofoam containers to be delivered to the firemen at the dump. I hope it wasn’t lost on them that they had just been delivered more fuel for the fire that they were trying to put out.
“Could”? I think he meant “will”.
God will keep punishing us like this until we do the right thing and legalize same-sex marriage.
What in the what is this contradictory statement? lol…
Cap it and set a new facility up away from us !
Yes. Away from us. Over there. By those other people. – Notice the OP doesn’t say anything about trying to actually solve the underlying problems? Just afflict it on someone else that’s not them.
Thanks to the Chief Fire Officer and his staff for resolving this ongoing problem. As for the “Politicians”, all “smoke and mirrors”. I can only imagine the concern the CFO had for the safety of his staff, and the other responding agencies, during their battle with this ongoing beast.
https://www.caymancompass.com/2014/12/30/top-story-of-2014-george-town-dump-several-fires-slow-progress/
Paul Walker hasn’t managed to put this thing out…Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday…how hard is it? What does CIFS need that we haven’t installed or acquired from all of the learning from multiple previous fires? This is the biggest one ever, and it smells like a senior intentional directive to keep it going and burn the pile down prior to capping the much-reduced remainder. It’s never just a coincidence with this regime.
If the discussed action plan on the table is to cap the dump and entomb all of that WTE fuel feedstock, then we aren’t seriously talking about WTE. Not now or ever. If CIG want WTE they are contracting and moving us further down the road with an insincere partner. Municipal Solid Waste is the fuel for plasma arc gasification electrical power generation, you can’t entomb that material.
The dump will burn again and again until the money is given to some one who has the experience to fix it. So far there is no plan in place to do this. Dart will cap the current pile and a new pile will be started lose by.
This is the best CIG can do and will ever do. Not spending the money to fix it before now means they will never have the money to fix it now or anytime soon. Look at the bright side. Every year now there will be some new holidays (not paid) dump is burning day!
At this point to do it right would require astronomical amount of money. A miser pays twice, you know. That is for the existing dump.
Then you’ll need money for new up to 21century standards waste management and recycling system.
You have no choice either implement draconian laws to significantly reduce amount of waste or introduce a substantial waste disposal fee, on both, residents and visitors.
Happen again?? It’s still frigging happening now! The fire is not under control at all!
Poor Director Simms left to clean up someone else’s terrible terrible mess?? While some out here a run dey mouth bout they retired!$$$$$$$$
It’s the fate of a nominee CIG stooges to take the heat and pave over the backroom maladministration. Unfortunate that there is also responsibility matching the salary that exceeds his ability. Franz injected him into this mess as the poster child of civil service over-ambition. His best hope is to be soon placed on indefinite paid early retirement leave.
Has anyone noticed toxic ashes on cars and in your yards ?
Schools should clean their outdoor playgrounds.
Replace ground surfaces, remove vegetation and power wash play equipment. Inspect air ducts and air flow for contaminants.
Parents either could do it themselves along with school administrations, or sit and wait.
House, condo owners should do the same.
Lakeview owners should have started class action 5 years ago.
It really is tragic what is happening on this small rock.
They could hire smoke damage remediation professionals and submit the bill to CIG for reimbursement.
For starters, both of our cars will need new air filters, with interruption and service costs…
O.K. 10:11 am , get your appointment and get it done!
Why do all these highly paid officials spew nonsense as if the population has an IQ of 3. Stating the obvious is not what people want hear.
Because it has always worked in the past for the voters and always will. Plan on it.
Remember that composting needs water…
Forget the dump for a second. Why is there no travel ban for the countries effectee by the corona virus? Wake up you morons.
The government of the Cayman Islands ladies and gentlemen.
1956 years ago Rome burned. The man around at that time was a fella called Nero. Allegedly he played the fiddle whilst Rome burnt for six days. So what were our politicians doing whilst the dump burned? Surely not playing the fiddle. ( nor fiddling the books ) Let us hope we do not get six days but it is getting close.
Very good Chris. Please keep up the entertainment.
Gonna happen tomorrow as the wind pick up?
I heard Alden gonna stop the fires. So he can say you fixed the dump.
Gonna drop the port this year, pick it up in afew years after fixing the traffic.
Don’t let theses clowns fool you, they been having private meetings to profit on the dump and revisit the port project in a few years after they work on the road.
Lies caught by the LION
DEH Director Richard Simms has no background in waste management. He moved into this current role from being the nominee figurehead at the Dept of Vehicle and Equipment Services, where it too was run like a maladministration shambles. We can appreciate there are many years of mismanagement secrets buried in that landfill that predate his appointment, but it’s way past time for this Unity regime to realize that we need an actual career professional from the real world to manage this volatile dump situation. The affirmative action salaried Caymanian opportunity stories should be housed in less mission-critical departments.
4.36pm You have succinctly described a major problem. How many times do we see plaudits from Caymanians when their brethren are promoted. What we don’t see is what really happens in the frequent cases where promotion exceeds ability, this never comes to light.
After Ivan, DEH bought in a Canadian expert in waste management and recycling to sort out the solid waste issues. Anyone remember him? Probably not because having employed someone what actually understood the problem and how to deal with they ignored him. He had so little to do at CIG he was allegedly taking on outside consultancy work in the USA and Canada. In 2006 the Minister responsible took a team (including this expert) to the USA to look at WTE – nothing got done. About the same time CIG put the contract to clear post-Ivan scrap metal out to tender – remember the Matrix fiasco? One option they were sent offered to not just clear all the scrap but establish a permanent recycling facility – it was ignored. I saw the proposal and spoke to the man who sent it – it was addressed to the Minister himself but not even acknowledged. That’s why this isn’t getting sorted out. I can never figure out whether it’s just plain old stupidity, a NIH (not invented here) attitude to change or the ‘what’s in it for me?’ mentality that’s screwing this all up but whichever it is it needs to change PDQ before Grand Cayman is destroyed.
I once met that Canadian waste management expert years ago. Sure was a bright guy related to waste management. Had solutions but needed CIG money. Wonder whatever happened to him? The guy from Edmonton who was here a few years ago was also good too. What happened to him?
We have had so much expertise here but simply no political will to do anything.
The port is the #1 priority. What is wrong with this picture?
7:44 I think in the end the people they bring in get fed up banging their heads against the proverbial ‘brick wall’ and decide to go back to the real world. I’ve met a few RCIPS officers from the UK who went through that experience. They tried to introduce good policing practices (basic little things like securing murder scenes properly) and were greeted with, ‘That’s not how we do things here!’
But Richard Simms is an excellent Caymanian civil servant. That’s all that counts.
So many Caymanians in high powered government related positions with no qualifications other than being Caymanian. Just look at the group that run the airport.
“It created a little spark and so the metal pile caught fire”
“Things are constantly moving inside the dump and so all it takes is a little friction and the methane ignites”
Nothing about failure to drain gasoline from cars before crushing them. Nothing about biological processes through decomposition raising temperatures.
After all these years is it really the case that there are no onsite pumps and fixed hoses that the dump operators cannot turn on and off whenever required?
The negligence is an outrage.
What was the value of all the rubber that has now been destroyed? How much was invested in making that massive pile of tires now spewing cancerous agents?
it will happen again until…it is fully closed and remediated.