By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The Oliver Fire Department responded to a fire at the Oliver Landfill on Monday evening that was the result of a combination of composting material and high temperatures.
According to Oliver Fire Department spokesperson and Deputy Fire Chief Rob Graham a firefighter living in the vicinity of Road 16 spotted the plum of dark black smoke coming from the landfill area and called it in.
Upon arrival, it was determined the fire was in the household garbage area and mostly burning on the surface covering an area about 15m by 30m (50 by 100 feet), Graham said.
“We proceeded to start extinguishing it but it was a little bit hard to get at, but we were able to get one of the equipment operators for the Regional District to spread it out with a skidder/loader so that we could soak it all down.”
Graham the cause was likely a combination of the garage in the compost or the wood chips that are mixed in, alongside the hot dry weather. “It just goes through its natural composting process and gets hot and can combust,” he said.
This is the first time this year the fire department has been called to the landfill. In previous years they have had similar fires there but only involving the wood chip compost area, not the household garbage area.
Firefighters were on the scene for about one hour. “We were also excited to have a couple of our High School Jr Firefighters attend and be able to put into practice some of the skills they have been learning the past couple of weeks,” he added.
