Fire at Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill site again, weeks after major blaze was doused — “Waste, plastic, cloth … once it catches fire, it keeps burning”
10 April 2022 (The Quint) – A fire broke out at the Ghazipur landfill in East Delhi on Saturday night, 9 April, officials stated, about two weeks after a major fire broke out at the same site that required almost 50 hours of firefighting operations to douse.
This fire, however, was put out within three hours and there was no casualty, as per the officials, reported news agency PTI.
The Delhi Fire Service (DFS) officials said that they had been informed at around 10:30 pm about the fire in the landfill. Accordingly, four fire tenders were sent to the spot, according to PTI.
“We deployed four fire tenders as the fire spread to different piles of garbage. We acted quickly and first controlled the fire. The fire was doused at around 1 am. The fire tenders were sent back after a cooling operation to control smoke,” an officer stated.
Fire at Delhi’s Ghazipur Landfill Site Again, Weeks After Major Blaze Was Doused
Indian firefighters battle Delhi landfill blaze as air fills with toxic fumes
By Esha Mitra and Rhea Mogul
30 March 2022
NEW DELHI (CNN) – Firefighters in India’s capital said Wednesday they are close to extinguishing a fire at a landfill site that has been burning for nearly two days, cloaking the area in a toxic haze and choking residents.
The blaze broke out Monday at the Ghazipur landfill east of New Delhi, according to the city’s fire services director, Atul Garg. The cause has not been established, but fires can be triggered by combustible gases from disintegrating garbage, he added. Temperatures in Delhi rose to nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) the day the fire broke out.
While the blaze has largely been put out, two firefighters remain on site to contain small flames and heavy smoke, Garg said. Police have opened an investigation into the cause of the fire, he added.
According to Garg, about a dozen firefighters were deployed to the scene, but containment efforts were complicated by precariously placed mounds of garbage and uneven surfaces.
“This is not a concrete floor so you can’t walk on it. You never know when you step on a hole and you fall through,” he said, adding there were no water sources nearby to douse the flames. “Waste, plastic, cloth … once it catches fire it keeps burning,” he said.
The fire broke out one week after a report by IQAir, which tracks global air quality, named New Delhi as the world’s most polluted capital. For years, the city has at times been plagued by a throat-searing, acrid haze that can lead to health problems.
Since Monday, some residents who live near the Ghazipur landfill have experienced difficulty breathing, itchy eyes and sore throats, according to local media reports.
Video and photographs of the site show the air engulfed in dense, black smoke that has blocked the sun. Thick smog cascaded across busy roads near the landfill, making it difficult to see.
There is no processing of waste in most Indian cities, according to the government’s Central Pollution Board, and in some cases, trash is simply burned in open dump yards on the roads.
Since it began operations in 1984, the 70-acre (283,280 square meter) Ghazipur landfill has grown into a staggering, towering mound of garbage, inching as high as the 73-meter (240-feet) Taj Mahal. More than two dozen fires have broken out at the site since 2019, according to New Delhi’s fire department. [more]
Indian firefighters battle Delhi landfill blaze as air fills with toxic fumes
