A blaze that had been raging at the dump for six weeks was finally extinguished earlier this week.”What we intend to do is work in conjunction with Environmental Health and [their] crew, and we want to constantly monitor the site so as to prevent the reoccurrence of this fire,” said Assistant Superintendent Jefferey Deleveaux, Director of Fire Services.
This union will seek to become operational as soon as possible, and will allow [fire] officers to regularly visit the dump. “We have put in place a plan where, effective immediately, each guard commander will be responsible to see that the entire dump site is checked for fire,” said ASP Deleveaux.
He further explained that they will be on the lookout for any sign of fire, with regular checks every one or two months, and the entire waste yard will be under inspection.
ASP Deleveaux revealed that such a precaution is necessary as the chances of another outburst are likely. “It will happen because of the nature of the landfill. This is why we are going to be on top of it and as soon as it starts, in its early stage we will just knock it out,” he said. “The possibility exists for this to happen again. Whenever the condition is right, spontaneous combustion can happen. But we have emergency plans to be on top of it should it occur.”
They also plan to monitor the scavengers around the dumpsite. As ASP Deleveaux said, though they can keep under control the subterranean site, they cannot control who comes in and smokes a cigarette on the site. He said that could pose a major problem for them once more.
“We have ‘no smoking’ signs when they enter the site but obviously they don’t adhere to that. So we need some enforcement security as well,” said Roscoe Ferguson, assistant director of the department of government health with responsibility for solid waste. Also, he said, there are plans underway to obtain machinery sometime in the future to process the waste in volume, as well as to “deconstruct the landfill” which will be safer.
By: LAURA MATTHEWS, The Nassau Guardian
