YANGON DUMP FIRE RAGES ON
600 people fighting fire in Myanmar city since April 21
FIREFIGHTERS in Myanmar scrambled to put out a fire in a massive garbage dump here, as foulsmelling smoke from the burning trash that injured dozens extended into its second week yesterday.
The fire had generated a haze blanketing parts of the city and raised concerns about public health. It had spread across nearly a third of the 120ha landfill in the city’s northern township of Hlaing Thar Yar.
Some 600 firefighters and members of security forces had been fighting the blaze since April 21. Authorities had imported fire suppression bio-foam from Thailand and tried to create artificial rain to contain the spread of the flames in the peak of the hot season.
While authorities had brought the fire under control, deputy director of Myanmar Fire Service Department Win Naing said it was difficult to estimate when it would be extinguished.
The cause of the fire had yet to be determined, Win Naing said.
Twenty-six people have been hospitalised, many suffering smoke inhalation. Myanmar had sought medical help from the World Health Organisation and other aid agencies, state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar reported yesterday.
Myanmar media have criticised the government’s slow response in tackling what Yangon Region Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein called a “national problem”.
It also highlights the growing waste problem in Yangon, a city of more than five million people without a long-term waste management solution. The 17-yearold landfill takes about half of the city’s daily trash of more than 2,500 tonnes.