Overloaded landfill, smoldering, causing pollution
For more than 5 days, the Truong Thuy landfill in Truong Phu commune, Quang Tri province has continuously experienced smoldering fires, causing smoke and dust along with the pungent smell of burning plastic and nylon to spread widely, seriously affecting the lives of many households living around the area.
According to local people, the fire was discovered on the evening of May 11. Initially, the fire only appeared on an area of about 500m2, but then quickly spread to nearly 2ha. Smoke from burning waste rose tens of meters high, covering the surrounding residential area.
Ms. Le Thi Ha (resident of Giang Son village, Truong Phu commune, Quang Tri province) said that when the landfill burst into flames, the fire spread very quickly, dragging along dust and a strong smell of burn that flew many kilometers away. People in the village had to close their doors all day but still could not avoid shortness of breath and stinging eyes due to dust.
According to Ms. Ha, many households have had to change their lives due to prolonged air pollution for many days. Fearing the risk of fire continuing to spread and affecting health, local people have sent people to block garbage trucks from dumping at Truong Thuy landfill.
According to the Le Thuy Public Works Management Board, Truong Thuy landfill was put into use in 2012 with an area of more than 2.5ha. Every day, it receives about 60-70 tons of domestic waste from many localities in the area. However, due to the increasing amount of garbage collected, overloading has appeared on the landfill in the past 2 years. Many areas of garbage are piled into thick layers, accumulating for a long time, posing a very high risk of fire, especially in prolonged hot weather conditions.
Mobilizing many forces, making efforts to extinguish the fire
Immediately after discovering the fire, local authorities coordinated with the Fire and Rescue Police Department of Quang Tri Provincial Police to mobilize forces and vehicles to participate in firefighting.
Mr. Le Van Son - Chairman of Truong Phu Commune People's Committee, Quang Tri province said that functional units have mobilized nearly 100 people to participate in firefighting at Truong Thuy landfill along with 7 excavators and 5 specialized fire trucks.
However, due to flammable materials such as plastic, foam, paper and gas generated from long-term accumulated waste, it was difficult to extinguish the fire. Functional forces had to continuously divide into many groups to handle the smoldering points deep beneath the layers of waste.
Fire control work faced many difficulties due to the large amount of garbage, complex structure and unfavorable weather.
Mr. Dang Dai Quan - representative of the Le Thuy Public Works Management Board said that prolonged hot weather combined with strong southwest Phun wind is increasing the risk of fire spreading and re-outbreak.
In recent days, the unit has mobilized excavators to dig and dig up the layers of garbage below and then spray water directly into the fire points to limit the risk of prolonged smoldering fire. At the same time, functional forces are also urgently creating corridors around the landfill to prevent the fire from spreading to the adjacent forest area.
According to Mr. Quan, the fire fighting process encountered many difficulties due to thick smoke and dust and a strong stench from burning waste rising continuously. This not only affected the fire fighting force but also directly affected the lives of people in the surrounding area.
Currently, functional forces continue to maintain personnel and vehicles on duty at the scene to handle the remaining smoldering fire points, minimize the risk of re-outbreak as well as minimize the impact on the environment and people's lives.
