A new fire started yesterday evening, Tuesday August 7, at the landfill of Pond Island in the Dutch part.
The authorities in Sint Maarten called on residents to close their doors and windows, especially if they have asthma or breathing problems.
The firefighters spent a good part of the night trying to put out the fire with the company in charge of managing the landfill. It catches fire regularly. Recently, Tadzio Bervoets, director of the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation, and vice-president of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance, explained to us: "As everything goes in the same place in the landfill, the chemical reactions caused by the decomposition of all the waste lead to internal combustions. What people don't realize is that the landfill is still burning. Those responsible for managing it do not let the methane escape and do nothing to prevent this combustion. So in a moment of dryness, or when the wind picks up, or when someone does something stupid like soldering above the trash, the flames get bigger inside and the top catches fire. This is why there have been large clouds of smoke for the past fifteen years. "
Police in Sint Maarten have uploaded several videos of the fire. On Wednesday noon she posted an update in which it could be seen that while the flames appeared to have subsided, thick smoke was still emanating from the landfill. Firefighters, according to Sint Maarten police, are struggling to put out the fire because his hearth is buried deep enough under the trash. This is why the water does not do much. They will therefore have to cover the fire with earth to try to suffocate it. Photo credits: Government of Sint Maarten
(Source: www.soualigapost.com)
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