NIBONG TEBAL – The red soil supplier helping firemen fight the raging peat fire at the Pulau Burung landfill will sacrifice its Lunar New Year holiday to ensure the fire is extinguished.
State Welfare and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said the quarry operator has agreed to operate on the two public holidays so red soil can be ferried to the landfill.
The peat fire, which has lingered for almost three weeks, has to be extinguished unconventionally because it is burning underneath heaps of rubbish.
Thus, firemen and Seberang Prai City Council workers are busy dumping moist red soil on the burning site to ensure it smothers the flames and smoke.
“The lorries have made 44 trips to transport red soil to the landfill to put out the fire. The quarry owner has agreed to operate full days to transport red earth to the landfill,” said Phee.
We have successfully put out the fire in Sectors 1, 2 and 4, and the fire in Sector 3 has been brought under control. It is in Sector 5 that the fire is still intense.”
Phee expressed hope that the landfill fire will be completely extinguished in a couple of days.
He said they are using drones to monitor and study the fire situation, and the Seberang Prai Selatan District Disaster Management Committee is undertaking the entire task of handling the landfill fire.
“As a contingency plan, we are digging 5m-deep, 5m-wide pits using excavators to overcome the peat fires as the pits will collect the water sprayed onto the landfill. We have 10 tankers supplying water for firefighting efforts.
“Firefighting work at the landfill will continue as usual despite the Chinese New Year holidays and all the government agencies involved in the task will continue to work to put out the landfill fire,” Phee said.
The Penang Fire and Rescue Department had yesterday said it had extinguished 65% of the over 11ha of fire at the Pulau Burung landfill.
The Seberang Prai Selatan District Disaster Management Committee in a statement said the fire in Sectors 1, 2 and 4 have been completely extinguished but are still being monitored.
It added that land reclamation work is still being carried out to ensure landfill fires come to an end.
The statement said that in order to facilitate the fire extinguishing work, the area on fire at the landfill has been divided into five sectors, with three sectors having been extinguished completely.
The statement added that extinguishing efforts are being assisted by federal and state agencies including the Seberang Prai City Council, Penang City Council, Civil Defence Force, volunteer fire brigades and the landfill management company, Syarikat PLB Terang.
The Penang Environment Department is monitoring the Air Pollution Index around the clock since the fire began on January 12, and will continue monitoring activities using drones to detect heat spots. – The Vibes, January 29, 2022
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