Fire at Mumbai’s Deonar dumping ground still not doused

Six fire tenders, six water tankers and two jumbo water tankers have been pressed into service.

After a fire broke out on Monday afternoon at the city’s largest dumping ground –Deonar, the fire has still not doused and firefighting operations are still going on.

The fire broke out on Monday afternoon. (Praful Gangurde/HT Photo)

Six fire tenders, six water tankers and two jumbo water tankers have been pressed into service.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said, “The fire brigade has controlled the spread of fire to the entire ground. Now, the work to completely douse the fire is on.”

Residents of nearby areas – Chembur, Rafiq Nagar, Govandi claimed the fire was raging on till midnight, but by Tuesday morning it had reduced.

The civic officials said such fires in dumping grounds are common during summer as the methane, which is highly combustible easily catches fire due to high temperatures.

Major fire incidents have been reported between January 2015 and March 2016 at Deonar.

The fire brigade had taken 10 days to control a massive fire, which broke out on March 20, 2016 at Deonar.

Following the lessons from the blaze in 2016, HT has learnt that the fire brigade has dug trench circling the dump, which has caught fire. The move has helped restrict the blaze from spreading.

Opened in 1927 the Deonar landfill spread over 132 hectare holds 12 million metric tonnes of waste. Currently, 3000 metric tonnes of fresh waste is dumped at the site daily.