Delhi’s Bhalswa landfill in flames again; blaze doused after 9-hour effort

On Thursday, the day before the incident, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai inspected the site and announced that a nine-point action plan was being chalked out to prevent fires at the site.

Thick clouds of smoke engulfed areas around the Bhalswa landfill in north Delhi on Friday after a massive fire broke out at the garbage dump and firefighting operations continued late into the night.

New Delhi: People look on as smoke billows from a fire at Bhalswa landfill, in New Delhi, Friday, June 3, 2022. (PTI Photo)

A senior municipal official said that the fire incident was reported around 2pm and four fire tenders were rushed to control the blaze. “Besides the four fire tenders from Delhi Fire Services, we have also deployed excavators to put soil and inert material to douse the fire. It seems that the fire may be due to high temperatures which increase the methane generation among decaying organic matter. A detailed investigation will be carried out,” the official said.

Just a day before, the landfill site was inspected by Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai who announced that a nine-point action plan was being chalked out to prevent fires at landfill sites.

Vijay Bhagat, former BJP councillor from the 20N ward (Swami Shardhanand colony) and outgoing deputy standing committee chairman, said that residents noticed the thick clouds of smoke rising from the landfill around 2pm and the information was conveyed to the MCD headquarters and the fire service. “Unlike the previous fire incidents, this one is fortunately not on the side of the jhuggi-jhopri cluster near the landfill. However, the wind speed is spreading the smoke in the nearby area,” he said.

By 7pm, around 12 fire tenders were deployed to control the fire.

A Delhi Fire Service (DFS) official said while the section of landfill under flames was not large in comparison to earlier fires, the amount of smoke emanating from the landfill remained very high. The firefighting operations were going on till late night.

On April 26, another fire broke out at the Bhalswa landfill after which it continued to smoulder for almost three weeks.

Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) had issued a fine of ₹50 lakh on the municipal corporation due to pollution caused by the last Bhalswa fire while the Delhi Commission for Women constituted an expert committee on May 29 this year to ascertain the impact of the landfill sites in Delhi on the health of women and children living in their vicinity as well as the civic sanitation workers at the landfill.

Delhi has witnessed a spate of infernos on landfill sites during the ongoing summer season with at least three major fires reported on Ghazipur landfill site (March 28, April 10, April 20) and two instances at Bhalswa (April 26, June 3). Experts have repeatedly pointed out that the civic bodies should ensure compaction of fresh waste and development of inert soil layers while dumping fresh waste to minimise the risk of such fires, with segregation of waste at household level as the only long term solution.

The Bhalswa landfill is estimated to hold more than eight million tonnes of accumulated legacy waste after garbage dumping started at the spot in 1994. The site is spread over an area of 36 acres and it had reached height of 62 metres in 2019.

Under normal circumstances, the maximum height of a landfill site should not exceed 15m but due to unavailability of space fresh garbage dumping continues. Bhalswa’s carrying capacity was exhausted in 2006. The civic body claims that more than 20 lakh tons of legacy waste has been removed by bio-mining efforts which started in 2019 but fresh garbage dumping continues to pull back this progress. The corporation has a deadline of July 2023 for flattening the landfill site.