Major fire breaks out at Bhagtanwala dump again

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 9

There is no end to the woes of Bhagtanwala residents as a major fire erupted again at the dump site on Wednesday evening. Residents witnessed high flames on one of the heaps of the legacy garbage at the Bhagtanwala dumping ground.

Dense smoke billowing from the garbage spread all over in the area and residents said that it was very difficult for them to breathe in toxic air. A moderate wind last evening spread the smoke towards residential localities. On receiving information, fire tenders of the MC reached the spot and initiated efforts to douse the fire. It took the firefighters three hours to control the flames. However, the smoke kept billowing from the dump till this morning.

According to information, there is around 18 metric tonnes of garbage lying at the dump. In 2018, the Amritsar Municipal Corporation had proposed to eliminate all garbage by conducting bioremediation within two years. The MC had proposed to install a waste-to-energy plant to produce green coal. However, the process of bioremediation has failed to start properly. Despite the directions of the National Green Tribunal, no plan has been implemented. Heaps of garbage produce methane gas. MC officials claimed that with the rise in temperatures, methane gas catches fire.

However, residents of Bhagtanwala area claimed that the solid waste management company and the MC allegedly set the garbage on fire.

Sandeep Sharma, an activist of the Sanji Sangharsh Committee working against Bhagtanwala dump, stated that the municipal corporation has failed to conduct the bioremediation of garbage. “Now tonnes of garbage, being thrown here over the years, has turned into a virtual mountain. They don’t have the space to dump more garbage here. Instead of processing the garbage, the solid waste management company set the garbage afire.”

The area residents demand permanent deployment of fire tenders at the dump. However, three different fire incidents in various parts of the city last evening made it hard for the Fire Brigade Department to deploy a permanent fire tender at the dump.

A major fire broke out at a godown on the Tarn Taran road last evening. A huge quantity of dry fodder was lying inside the godown. The firefighters used 35 fire tenders to douse the fire. A liquor shop in Ram Bagh area also gutted on the last evening. The firefighters took four hours to control the fire.

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