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Landfill Fire's Last Flames Out

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

ZACHARY - Almost a day after a fire began burning several acres of waste at the North Landfill, city-parish workers were covering the last of the blaze with soil Monday.

The fire began around 5 p.m. Sunday, spreading across three to four acres of the 92-acre site, landfill manager Doug Wilson said Monday.

What caused the fire had not been determined.

Clouds of white smoke from the landfill at 16003 Samuels Road, were still visible from U.S. 61 at 4 p.m. Monday.

Wilson said the fire was more pest than peril.

"There was never any danger," he said. "It's just a nuisance."

Wilson said the landfill was closed Sunday, and no workers were injured.

The fire did not spread beyond the landfill.

Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Rodney Mallett said representatives have been on the scene repeatedly since the fire began, testing the air quality for anything hazardous.

Mallet said hand-held instruments did not detect anything harmful, but further tests were conducted as a precaution.

Wilson said the landfill is the dumping site for all of East Baton Rouge Parish, collecting 1,600 tons of waste per day on average.

The landfill only takes household waste, not industrial waste.

"Any dangers, like chemicals, wouldn't be here," he said.

Firefighters from the Baker and Baton Rouge fire departments were present as bulldozers heaped soil on the smoldering waste to cut off oxygen to the fire.

Wilson said water is not ideal for putting out landfill fires, besides the fact that liquids should not be put in landfills.

Wilson said that when liquids, such as rainfall, come in contact with remnants of bleach, soda or any other liquid waste dumped in the landfill, it creates a threat to ground water called leachate, or a solution formed by the leaching of soil.

Wilson said the city-parish takes steps to minimize the amount of leachate by using protective covering and a series of berms to limit the amount of rainfall that gets into the landfill.

"If you keep that much leachate out, it minimizes the risk," Wilson said.

The landfill remained open for operation Monday, its busiest collection day, despite efforts to extinguish the blaze, Wilson said.

Dump trucks delivered trash to other areas of the site, Wilson said.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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