Fire crews stretched as landfill burned
(CNS): Cayman Islands Fire Service crews were saving lives at a major collision in Red Bay on Sunday night at around 10:20, when they were also called out to deal with yet another blaze at the George Town landfill. This stretched the fire service and led to the Franks Sound crews being moved to Spotts to remain on standby for the entire island.
This latest fire was about 100 yards in diameter, located in the pile where new rubbish is currently being dumped but in a different part of the operational area of the landfill that was smouldering last week. It is believed to have been caused by flammable waste being mixed in with other recently arrived waste.
Fire crews from West Bay were the first to arrive to work alongside the Department of Environmental Health (DEH) to extinguish the blaze, as officers from the central fire station were still cutting people free from the fatal crash in Red Bay.
Straight after that they were called to a fire alarm at a George Town Primary School before they were eventually able to move on to the dump to help battle that blaze. This was eventually extinguished in the early hours of Monday morning.
However, fire crews remained on the site Tuesday containing the hot spots, as the area continued to smoulder.
CIFS and DEH officials are asking the public to follow proper disposal measures for flammable materials. “All batteries should be handled with care. Batteries that have been improperly disposed of can damage the environment, harm people and cause fires,” said DEH Director Richard Simms.
“We all have a role to play in preserving our environment and our health today for a better future for all. The careless act of disposing batteries as ordinary waste could have a very negative impact on our lives,” he added.
Batteries used in cellphones, cameras, pagers, two-way radios, calculators, small cordless tools, and other personal digital devices can be recycled by placing them into the Blue Battery Recycling Collection Tubes located at all supermarkets and other locations.
Lead acid batteries, such as those used in automobiles, boats, motorcycles and outdoor power equipment, and batteries used in hybrid and fully electronic vehicles should be taken to landfills, garages or any retailer that sells them.
Proper disposal of batteries will not only reduce the number of fires at the landfill but it will have a positive impact on the environment, as many batteries contain corrosive materials and heavy metals that threaten human health and the environment, officials said, as they also asked the public to take batteries out of derelict vehicles and disposed of them at the landfills.
For more information on disposing of batteries visit the DEH website here.
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Category: Local News
I still question how many house fires have we had over the last few years, they occur almost daily in Miami. I find it hard to understand how the occasional dump fires which do not endanger lives, stretches the resources of our fire Dept.
Endagers lives with its toxicity – smell it all day inside the house thru the air vents and without AC on, making us feel sick the smell is so nauseating.
Bring in some raccoons and bears. They’ll eat the garbage problem solved and create a tourist attraction in the process 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
He’s only been back 6 days, well done Dwayne
Was it Jesus on a donkey?
We’re really up the proverbial creek if there’s a plane crash or another large disaster simultaneous to a dump fire.
It’s obviously beyond DEH to prevent dump fires so why haven’t they planned for and installed a fire suppression system like what bulk fuel storage facilities use?
Oh wait, Rubis’ fire suppression system was non functioning for over a decade.
I guess we’ll just be caught with our pants on fire around our ankles.
If we have a plane crash, the outcome will be catastrophic. We do not have the resources to deal with a mass casualty event.
People will try very hard but the system will be overwhelmed if a large number of people require medical attention at the same time.
Cayman however is in much better shape than say 10-20 years ago due to the major expansion of medical resources in the private sector over this time.
I was arguing that we have a lack of preventative and suppression measures rather than resources to deal with potential casualties. But then again prevention and mitigation are not big on agendas in Cayman, we just let things slide and be reactive.
Agreed, things would be pretty stretched, but the Regiment would be hugely helpful in a mass casualty event, looks like all of them are first aid trained and with their 2 military ambulances I image they will pretty useful to support the EMS.
I suppose that’s the reason we have them really, to provide spare capacity in an emergency.
Assume the reference to the Regiment is sarcasm?
If we have a massive fire in one of the high-rises especially with limited access for emergency vehicles, the outcome will be catastrophic.
As long as it crashes in to the dump we’ll be fine.
We all will be goners. Cayman has no Burn Center. Lungs damage from fire and toxic chemicals would finish one fast if they don’t evaporate in the explosion first.
“Burn baby burn; disco inferno.” Go on admit it, you sang that in your head.
Will this problem ever end? Will we ever really see the dump fixed? I know there are plans but it seems we need something that will happen sooner rather than later.
Not fixable with the current culture.
Fix the damn dump Wayne!
I’m a good responsible citizen and recycle, even when it’s inconvenient.
But government NEEDS to help us do this as there has been many a time when I think “fkuk it” because it can be a pain at times.
Make it easier for us to do so and perhaps more of us will do the work.
Hope you didn’t break a nail doing “the work” princess.
What has the CIFS done with the old vehicles that were replaced?
Can’t they be permanently stationed at the landfill?
The older trucks have been repurposed for training and also used as backup tankers so unfortunately they cannot be permanently station at the landfill
And when they are not training? My God the Civil Service is exceptional at wasting assets and ineffectively using available resources…
PACT now that Hon Seymour is within your fold can you please complete the Regen project that he started.
Somewhat dump related, does anyone have any idea when Dart is going to tear down the derelict former Hyatt Hotel? An empty field would be better.
It is now over 17 years ago since that place was destroyed by Ivan. `
Dart views those buildings as monuments to who is really in charge. It’s a ‘screw you’ to Britannia and a middle finger to the entire island. Unless he is building something on that site, they will remain standing simply because he can.
HE is supposed to be paying $25K a month in fines for leaving that there but Alden looked the other way for years..
same as the all the derlict properties in gt??….
at least dart has got a track record in building world-class sutainable developments…
Not really sustainable if you pull out all the mangroves in the face of increased hurricane risk and rising sea levels, and require the importation of thousands of impoverished workers at below subsistence pay levels to service those glorious monuments. Just sayin.
You think C-Bay is sustainable and “World Class”
A lot of what Dart does has a nice façade but isn’t the highest quality or ground breaking in terms of sustainability when compared to other projects around the world.
If you walk around Camana Bay or visit the school it is readily apparent that it is a normal development and not something gifted to us by a rainbow pooping unicorn.
DIVI Tiara got away with it for years and didn’t pay anything. Why can’t DART do the same thing?
far more pressing issues…but yep try and keep up the anti-dart rhetoric……zzzzzzzzzzzzz
How hard is it to train DEH officers to point a hose attached to a pump in a dyke so that our fire officers and their expensive equipment can be more effectively deployed where they are most needed?