More than 16 hours after a large fire broke out at a dump site in the national capital’s outer north, the blaze was still burning on Wednesday.

“The dumpyard is still blazing,” a Fire Department officer told IANS. “Five fire tenders are actively dousing the flames.”

Residents in the region have begun to complain of itching eyes and breathing difficulties as dense plumes of smoke billow from the burning garbage mountain, enveloping the entire neighbourhood.

The official informed that the process to put out the fire completely will still take some time. “We may need a JCB to excavate the dumping ground in pockets and put soil on it to extinguish the fire,” said the official. Delhi Fire Service chief Atul Garg informed that the situation is now under control.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, however, officials said the rising temperature these days allows the formation of methane gas at the dumpyard site which is extremely flammable. “It could have triggered a spark that would have ultimately led to this massive blaze,” said the official.

Experts have repeatedly stated that a layer of dirt should be added routinely after dumping rubbish on the trash mountain to prevent similar disasters at the disposal grounds. It remains to be seen whether it has been adopted or not.

It’s worth noting that this is the second significant fire at a dumping yard in the last 30 days.

On March 28, a similar occurrence was reported from the Ghazipur garbage site in east Delhi. An FIR was also filed in that incident against unknown people for creating a noxious environment, negligent behaviour with regard to fire or combustible stuff, and endangering the life or personal safety of others.

Meanwhile, the pollution levels have soared in the area. According to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the air quality at the Dhirpur monitoring station, just 6 km from the landfill site, is currently under ‘severe’ category.

The pollutant PM 2.5 was at 316 (severe) and PM 10 at 251 (poor).

Usually, the air quality is categorised as ‘good’ when the AQI is between 0 to 30; ‘satisfactory’ between 31-60; ‘moderate’ between 61-90; ‘poor’ between 91-120; ‘very poor’ between 121-250; ‘severe’ at over 250.
(with inputs from IANS)