NEW DELHI: A fire broke out at the Bhalswa landfill on Friday afternoon. Officials of the fire department said information about the blaze was received at 1.52 pm, following which tenders were rushed to the spot. The fire had been brought under control by 8:20 pm, they said.
“Due to the presence of toxic gases and combustible materials, the fire spread quickly. The cooling process is going on," an officer said. Another officer said the fire started due to the rise in temperature. However, the exact cause of the fire is unknown.
A senior MCD official, meanwhile, claimed that the fire was minor and the civic body used water sprinklers deployed at the landfill to douse it as soon as it erupted. “Our team extended all support to the fire officials,” said the official.
The civic body has been putting a layer of C&D waste and inert over fresh waste after an interval of time to prevent the release of methane during the decomposing of wet waste.
According to the fire department, 12 such incidents took place at the site in last one year. On April 26, a major fire incident was reported here and it took five days to douse the fire. However, even after three weeks, smouldering continued at the Bhalswa landfill.
Besides Bhalswa, this year three incidents of fire were reported in east Delhi's Ghazipur landfill site, including the one on March 28, which was doused over 50 hours after it broke out.
The Friday incident occurred despite the erstwhile civic bodies claiming to intensify post-fire measures at Bhalswa and Ghazipur to minimise chances of fire incidents.
