OGDEN — Weber County firefighters are asking residents to carefully watch what they put in their trash, following a weekend fire at the landfill that took almost eight hours to extinguish.
“You need to be careful what you put in your trash, because it can cause a lot of harm,” said Weber County Fire Marshal Ted Black.
More than 30 firefighters from Weber, Ogden, Roy and Riverdale responded to the fire reported at 867 W. 2100 South in unincorporated Weber County at the county’s landfill Sunday.
The fire was reported at 11:42 a.m. and firefighters left the scene at 8 p.m., Black said.
“We had to move between 150 to 200 tons of rubbish onto the floor of the transfer station to get this fire out,” he said.
The rubbish was brought into the transfer station on Saturday. Dump and landfill employees then sort the trash, moving what they can to recycle.
Fire officials suspect someone brought a load on Saturday that had either ashes from a fire or charcoal briquets that were not extinguished.
“They smoldered in a pile for hours, then it got super heated and overcame the fire sprinkling system,” Black said. “It was a big fire.”
Black said this is not the first fire at the dump, but it is the largest fire crews have battled.
Briquets or ashes can feel cold to the touch, but when dumped they can “re-oxygenate and start burning again,” Black said.
It is better to keep the ashes or briquets for several days before putting them in the trash can or hauling them to the dump, he said.
“All that equipment and all of those men were not available for eight hours because someone was inconsiderate,” Black said.
The fire damaged the building, but the dump is still open for business, he said.
He did not have a cost estimate of the damage.
Comments