EMB closes Dagupan City dump after 3-day fire

A caretaker hoses down a section of the Dagupan dump to prevent another fire. —YOLANDA SOTELO

DAGUPAN CITY—The Ilocos regional office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) has ordered the city government to stop operating its 4-hectare open dump, following a three-day fire that struck the area.

The fire, which started on Jan. 12, gutted half of the 10-meter high garbage in Barangay Boquig village, said Insp. Romie Tungpalan,  city fire marshal.

But residents were alarmed after smoke continued to rise from the dump inside the Tondaligan People’s Park near the city’s beachfront.

Maria Victoria Abrera, EMB Ilocos director, said her agency had issued the city government a notice of violation two days before the fire.

She said she also met Mayor Belen Fernandez for a technical conference to assess the progress made in enforcing the city’s solid waste management plan.

The city government plans to put up a waste-to-energy facility to be fueled by garbage at the open dump. It also plans to relocate 30 families living around the site.

As of Wednesday, the Bureau of Fire Protection had not declared a “fire out” to signify that the blaze had been contained, after portions of the dump continued to smolder. Fire trucks, however, had been pulled out.

The BFP is investigating the cause of the fire but Tungpalan said the garbage could not have ignited on its own. While methane or carbon dioxide gases are combustible, the dump’s contents would need to heat up to 580 to 600 degrees Celsius to burst into flames, he said.

“Somebody could have ignited the garbage either deliberately or accidentally, like throwing a lighted cigarette butt into the garbage pile,” he said.

Abrera said: “They can no longer use the open dump, so they could practice segregation of garbage from source and establish waste facilities in the villages. But they should also guard against putting up mini dump sites.” —YOLANDA SOTELO