Crews in Rankin Inlet squelch landfill fire

Firefighters and public works crews in Rankin Inlet smothered a fire that started burning in the community’s landfill site March 7 by snuffing it out with truckloads of snow. (PHOTO BY ARNIE BROWN)

(updated at 1:00 p.m.)

Firefighters and public works crews in Rankin Inlet say they’ve smothered a fire that started burning in the community’s landfill site March 7.

Firefighters contained the fire late in the evening, while hamlet crews stockpiled truckloads of snow they used to dump over the fire March 8, successfully snuffing out the blaze.

The hamlet’s public works director Arnie Brown said the fire appeared to have been deliberately set around noon March 7.

“When I got up there at about 1 p.m., it was already burning pretty good,” Brown told Nunatsiaq News. “We think it was vandalism because it looks like it had been lit right in the front, where we normally dump household waste.”

The weather in Rankin Inlet has hovered at about -32 C over the last 24 hours, but winds have stayed down. That helped to keep smoke from the blaze going straight up, Brown said, rather than wafting into the community, located about three-quarters of a kilometre away from the landfill.

Brown called firefighters off of the scene March 7 around 10 p.m. after crews built a snow wall around the fire to contain it.

Brown said it was too dangerous to keep crews at the fire site through the night, in case of any combustibles that catch fire in the 22-foot deep landfill.

Instead, the hamlet used five loaders to collect snow that crews used to push over the burning fire the following morning.

Brown said local crews have been stretched to their capacity, while the hamlet also tends to a collapsed sewer line.

Firefighters are usually called to put out of fire at Rankin Inlet’s dump about once a year, he said.

Summer fires are easier to fight because crews can dig out the debris to douse the hot spots.

The cold temperatures that have dominated the forecast over the last few weeks are “not conducive to getting anything done,” Brown said.