Grass fire breaks out at LC landfill

By Dominic B. dela Cruz

Staff Reporter

GRASS FIRE broke out at the Laoag City sanitary landfill causing a fire that lasted for a week.

This was disclosed by Laoag City assistant city engineer Fred Agpaoa as he declared that the facility is now safe.

Smoke enveloped the landfill last week as the city engineering office and the city Bureau of Fire Protection scampered to put out the fire. Fire trucks from neighboring towns assisted the Laoag fire station in trying to control the blaze, which lasted for days.

Based on the investigation conducted by the engineering office and the Laoag BFP, they pointed to a grass fire near the landfill as the cause of the incident. They theorized that the grass on fire was blown by wind in reaching the landfill which resulted in a bigger fire as waste residue—methane—ignited the fire.

Mr. Agpaoa presumed that methane ignited the fire as this is a flammable substance.

With this development, Mr. Agpaoa requested Laoag mayor Chevylle V. Fariñas to push through with an earlier proposal to build a retaining wall around the landfill. They estimate the cost to be P3 million.

This incident again brought to the open the issue that the landfill is actually just an open dumpsite.

But Mr. Agpaoa reiterated that the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources should not have issued an environment compliance certificate to Laoag City when the landfill was being constructed if they lacked all the necessary requirements.

In 1997, the DENR issued an ECC for the city’s garbage dumpsite which served as its transformation period into a sanitary landfill. In 2002, DENR found out that Laoag lacks the waste segregation facility which then resulted into an extension of another five years.

In 2007, the controlled dumpsite was transformed into a category of sanitary landfill by the DENR.

Meanwhile, Ms. Fariñas said upon learning of the incident, she immediately tasked the city’s fire station to put out the fire at the landfill.

To remedy this situation, Ms. Fariñas said she will seek the assistance of environmentalists on how to improve the landfill so this would not be repeated in the future.