Fire at the landfill Monday

May have been caused by lightning

[  By Katherine Nettles  ]

Earlier this week a fire at the Gunnison County landfill closed the site for a short period of time but the situation has since been resolved and the landfill reopened midday Tuesday. The fire started on Monday evening, July 15. “The fire was in the trash at the landfill and the fire department told me there was no clear way to determine how it started,” says Gunnison County public works director Martin Schmidt. “It appears to me that it started away from the area where ‘new’ trash was dumped. There was considerable lightning in the area that afternoon. We put it out with water and by physically separating burning trash from un-burnt areas.”

The county used a bulldozer, excavator, two loaders, three water trucks, and a haul truck to fight the fire. The fire department responded from Gunnison and Ohio City to assist with water and expertise, said Schmidt, and nine county employees worked through the night Monday to remove any remaining fire and create a safe environment to re-open the landfill just before noon on Tuesday. 

“We continue to monitor the burned area and mitigate the impact to the landfill that includes burying a large area of burned debris, dealing with mud, and facilitating a different dump area. The fire occurred in the lined cell of the landfill and so all of the ash, water, or other contaminants related to the fire were contained and will not have an environmental impact after the fire,” Schmidt said.