Health concerns dismissed after bruck blaze
FIRE fighters were called out once again to Lerwick’s landfill site at Gremista in the early hours of Friday morning after rubbish started smouldering following this week’s blaze.
Shetland Islands Council, who operate the site, said the fire which burned for 24 hours until Thursday afternoon, should now be completely extinguished.
They also said there should have been no public health issues surrounding smoke from the fire, after one man complained of headaches and a sore throat in its aftermath.
Vic Thomas, who works at the rural freight centre down wind from the landfill site, phoned in sick on Friday after working all day in the smoke on Thursday.
He said he was concerned because the burning rubbish would have included plastic, which releases dioxins into the atmosphere if burned at low temperatures.
“It smelt like a builder burning all the debris left over from where he’s been putting a house up,” he said.
Shetland’s public health director Sarah Taylor said no one had reported any health concerns to NHS Shetland following the blaze.
“Obviously if people had been affected we would want them to go to their doctor and get checked out, and their doctor could say if it was related to the fire,” she said.
SIC infrastructure director Maggie Sandison she had asked the fire brigade if she should put out a public health warning, and was advised it was not necessary.
She added that her office was situated next door to the landfill site, so she was able to keep a close eye on the situation.
The fire was first noticed on Wednesday when smoke started seeping out of one of the cells of compacted waste, and reignited on Thursday bringing out fire fighters and council workers who spent all day putting out the flames and making it safe.
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Hourly monitoring by council staff picked up smoke from the site at midnight on Thursday and again at 6am on Friday morning, but the source was swiftly extinguished.
Sandison explained that landfill sites become “incredibly hot”, in a similar way to compost heaps, and that fires were a standard occurrence.
This is the first fire at Lerwick’s new landfill site since it was opened nine years ago, whereas before there would have been about one fire per year.
Strong winds igniting very hot debris that was exposed to the wind was blamed for starting this week’s fire, and the reignition was blamed on a smouldering bail of tyres.
That bail had been removed and the rubbish firmly compacted and covered in inert matter to remove any air pockets that might allow it to start again, she said.
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