Firefighters battle overnight landfill site fire
It was business as usual Friday for the West Hants landfill site in Cogmagun after firefighters managed to extinguish an overnight blaze.
Scott Ogilvie, the district manager for GFL Environmental Corporation, said he received a call from someone living near the landfill about 11:30 p.m. on Thursday.
“He could see a glow in the sky. I immediately called 911 and got the fire department dispatched,” said Ogilvie. “I only live about 12 minutes from the site so I headed in to the site myself.”
Ogilvie opened the gate to the landfill as firefighters began rolling in.
The fire was quickly located in Cell 3 – the new area that is being used at the site. Ogilvie said the fire was about 30 metres by 30 metres in size and was basically a surface fire.
“The fire departments immediately set up and started to soak it down with water,” he said, adding they had it “basically extinguished” by about 3:30 a.m.
“Generally when fighting a landfill fire, you go in with heavy machinery after and kind of open it up to make sure there’s no hotspots in the landfill,” he said.
Firefighters then doused it back down with water.
“They monitored it until about 5 a.m. They felt safe and comfortable that there wasn’t any issues there for us,” said Ogilvie, who stayed on site until the site reopened to the public.
About a dozen fire departments from East Hants, West Hants, Windsor, Kings County and Lunenburg County were involved with the call, either on scene or by providing stand by at the stations that were responding.
“They worked well with us, which makes an extreme difference on a landfill fire. It was contained fast and shut down quick,” said Ogilvie. “I have nothing but great things to say about them.”
This marked the second fire this year at the landfill – the other one was in June – and the second fire since the landfill opened in 2006.
Ogilvie said while it’s often difficult to determine the cause of landfill fires, this one, he believes, was caused by a lithium ion battery.